ffisoo )B 

vk JM 



Book__JiS^.. 

6^1 



U. S. COMMISSION OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 

SPENCER F. BAIRD, COMMISSIONER. 



176. 

SPECIAL BULLETIN. 



A MONOGRAPH 



SEAL-ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



HENRY W. ELLIOTT. 



REPRINTED, WITH ADDITIONS, FROM THE REPORT ON THE FISHERY INDUSTRIES 
OF THE TENTH CENSUS. 



WASHINGTON: 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1882. 









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/ 



^^'8^ 



'[suud&M* 






SECTION IX [MONOGRAPH A]. 



~7TZ 



A MONOGRAPH OF THE PRIBYLOV GROUP, 



SEAL-ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



HENRY W. ELLIOTT. 



WITH TWENTY-NINE PLATES, TWO MAPS, AND TWELVE SKETCH-MAPS OF THE 
ISLANDS AND THE EOOKEPJES BY THE AUTHOR. 



EXPLANATORY NOTES AND COMMENTS UPON THE MAP OF ST. GEORGE ISLAND. 

St. George. — This title was given to the island by its discoverer in honor of his vessel, the sloop "Ht. George". 

Salient features of the topography: Inaccessible character of TnE coast. — The profile which I give of this island presents 
clearly the idea of that characteristic, cold, abrupt elevation of St. George from the sea. From the Garden covo around to Zapadnie 
beach, there is not a single natural opportunity for a man to land; then, again, from Zapadnie beach round to Starry Ateel there is not 
one sign of a chance for an agile man to come ashore and reach the plateau above. From Starry Ateel to the Great Eastern rookery there 
is an alternation, between the several breeding-grounds, of three low and gradual slopes of the land to sea-level: these, with the landing 
at Garden cove and at Zapadnie, are the only spots of the St. George coast where we can come ashore. An active person can scramble 
up at several steep places between the Sea Lion rookery and Tolstoi Mees, but the rest of that extended bluffy sea-wall, which I have just 
defined, is wholly inaccessible from the water. A narrow strip of rough, rocky shingle, washed over by every storm-beaten sea, is all that 
lies beneath the mural precipices. 

Pretty cascade at Waterfall head. — In the spring, when the snow melts on the high plateau, a beautiful cascade is seen at 
Waterfall head; the feathery, filmy, silver ribbon of pluuging water is thrown out into exquisite relief by the rich background of that 
brownish basalt and tufa over which it drops. Another pretty little waterfall is to be seen just west of the village, at this season 
only, where it leaps from a low range of bluffs to the sea; the first named cascade is more than 400 feet in sheer unbroken precipilat ion. 

line or two small, naked, pinnacle rocks, standing close in, and almost joined to the beach at the Sea Lion rookery, constitute the only 
outlying islets or rocks; a stony kelp bed at Zapadnie, and one off the Little Eastern rookery, both of limited reach seaward, are the 
only hinderanees to a ship's sailing boldly round the island, even to scraping the bluffs, at places, safely with her yard-arms. I have 
located the Zapadnie shoal by observation from the bluffs above; while Captain Baker, of the "Reliance", sounded out the other. 

Authorities for latitude and longitude. — The observations which fix the positions of Tolstoi and Dalnoi Mees are taken from 
Russian authority (Captain Arehimandiitov), while the location of the village wasmado by Lieutenant Washburn Mayuard and myself, in 
1874, together with the degrees of variation to the compass; we used an artificial horizon; the overcast weather prevented our verification of 
the two other points given. 

Trend of ocean currents here. — Although small quantities of drift-wood lodge on all points of the coast, yet the greatest amount 
is found on the south shore, and thence around to Garden cove; this drift-timber is usually wholly stripped of its bark, principally pine 
and fir sticks, someof them qnite large, 18inchesto2 feet in diameter. Several years occur when a large driftage will be thrown or stranded 
here; then long intervals of many seasons will elapse with scarcely a log or stick coming ashore. I found at Garden cove, in June, 1873, 
the well preserved husk of a cocoanut, cast up by the surf on the beach; did I not know that it was most undoubtedly thrown over 
by some whaler in these waters, not many hundred miles away at the farthest, I should have indulged in a pretty reverie over its path 
in drifting from the South seas to this lonely islet. I presume, however, that the timber, which the sea brings to the Pribylov islands, is 
that borne down upon the annual Hoods of the Kuskokvim and Nushagak rivers, on the mainland, and to the east-northeast ward, a little 
more than 225 miles; it comes, however, in very scant supply. I saw very little drift-wood on St. Matthew island; but on the eastern 
shore of St. Lawrence there was an immense aggregate, which unquestionably came from the Yukon month. 

Spot of Pribylov's landing. — One of the natives, "stareek", Zachar Oostigov ("the president"), told mo that the "Russians, when 
they first lauded, came ashore in a thick fog", at Tolstoi Mees, near the present Sea Lion rookery site. As the water is deep and bold 
there, Pribylov's sloop, the "St. George", must have fairly jammed her bowsprit against those lofty cliffs ere the patient crew had 
intimation of their position. The old Aleut then showed me the steep gully there, up which the ardent discoverers climbed to the plateau 
above; and to demonstrate that he was not chilled, or weakened by age, he nimbly scrambled down to the surf below, some :J50 vertical 
feet, and I followed, half stepping and half sliding over Pribylov's path of glad discovery and proud possession, trodden one Juno day by 
him, nearly a hundred years ago. 

Suggestions for better loading and discharging a cargo. — With regard to the loading and unloading of the vessels at St. George, 
I believe that it would be wise and economical to grade a wagon-road over from the village to Garden cove; I think so because weeks and 
weeks consecutively have passed, to my personal knowledge, between the unloading and the loading of the steamer; when, during all 
that season of weary, anxious waiting for the surf to quiet down at the village landing, there was not a single day in which the ship 
could not have discharged or received her cargo easily and expeditiously on the sand beach at Garden cove. When the "St. Paul" has 
75,000 seal-skins in her hold, taken on at the larger island, then has to pound " oft' and on" here, in fog aud tempest, for a week or two, 
or even longer, waiting for a chance to get the 20,000 or 25,000 St. George skins (ready for her) in turn, her cargo is too costly to risk in 
this manner, inasmuch as the difficulty can be readily obviated by the cart-road I have indicated. The natives conld and would hitch 
themselves into large hand-carts, and thus draw the skins across and supplies back, with the aid of a mule or two on the stiff grade; this 
would occur in aseeuding Ahluckeyak ridge from the village, and also up a short one again rising from Garden cove to the mesa tops. 
The distance is only 2| to 3J miles, and 2 miles of that is nearly fit for wheels, as it lies to-day. I think, seriously, this should bo done; 
it may save or prevent in the future the loss of a valuable ship and her priceless cargo of human life aud all its belongings. Thick 
fogs and howling gales of wind, are dangerous and chronic here. 

What the sketch-map shows.— The sketch-map of Alaska, which I have inserted in the lower corner of this chart of St. George, 
is to show, better than any language can, the relative position of these celebrated seal-islands; and also to give a clear idea of their 
isolation and great distance from Sitka, where most of our people think all Alaska is centered. In fact, Sitka, as far as trade andresources 
aud population are concerned, is one of the most insignificant spots known to that country. Kadiak, Oonga, Beleovskie, and 
Oonalashka each have a greater civilized population than has Sitka to-day, and each has a hundred-fold more importance as a trade-center. 
As the ship sails, the Pribylov islands are: 

2,250 miles W. X. W. from San Fraucisco. 
1,500 miles W. X.W. from Vanconvei island, straits of Fuca. 
1,400 miles W. X.W. from Sitka. 
550 miles W. X.W. from Kadiak. 
193 miles W.N.W. from Oonalashka. 
700 miles ? . X. f. from Commander islands, Russian territory. 

All These distances are via Oonalashka. save the last one. 



EXPLANATORY NOTES AND COMMENTS UPON THE MAP OF ST. PAUL ISLAND. 

St. Paul. — This name was given to the island because it was descried for the first time on St. Paul's Day, July 10, 1787, by tho 
Russian discoverers. [June 29, Justinian calendar.] 

Definitions for Russian names of the rookeries, etc. — The several titles on the map that indicate the several breeding- grounds, 
owe their origin and have their meaning as follows: 

Zapadnie signifies "woatward", and is so used by the people who live in the village. 
Zolstoi signifies "golden", so used to express the metallic shimmering of the sands there. 
Ketavie signifies "of u whale", so used to designate that point where a large right whale was stranded in 1849 (?) ; from Russian "keet", 

or " whale". 
Lukannon. — So named after oue Lukannon, a pioneer Russian, who distinguished himself, with one Kaiecov, a countryman, by capturing 

a largo number of sea-otters at th;it point, and on Otter island, in 1787-88. 
Tonkie MEES signifies "matt (or "slender") cape" [toukie, "thin"; mees, "cape"]. 
Polavina literally signifies " half way ", so used by the natives because it is practically half way between the salt-houses at Northeast 

Point and the village. Polavina Sopka, or "half-wag mountain", gets its name in the same manner. 
Novastosiinaii, from the Russian "novaite", or "of recent growth", so used because this locality in pioneer days was an island to itself; 

and it has been annexed recently to the main land of St. Paul. 
Vesolia mista, or "jolly }>lace", the site of oue of the first settlements, and where much carousing was indulged. 
Maroonitch, the site of a pioneer village, established by one Maroon. 
Nahsayvernia, or "on the north shore", from Russian "sayvernie". 
Boga Slov, or " word of God", indefinite in its application to the place, but is, perhaps, due to the fact that the pious Russians, immediately 

after landing at Zapadnie, in 1787, ascended the hill and erected a huge cross thereon. 
Etnahnuhto, an Aleutian word, signifying the "three mammcc". 
Tolstoi, a Russian name, signifying "thick"; it is given to at least a hundred different capes and headlands throughout Alaska, being 

applied as indiscriminately as we do the term "Bear creek" to little streams in the western states and territories. 

The Profile of St. Paul. — That profile of the south shore, between the Village Hill and Southwest Point, taken from the steamer's 
anchorage off the Village cove, shows the characteristic and remarkable alternation of rookery slope and low sea-level flats. This point 
of viewing is slightly more than half a mile true west of the Village hill, to a sight which brings Boga Slov summits and Tolstoi head 
nearly in line. At Zapadnie is the place where the Russian discoverers first landed in 1787, July 10. With the exception of the bluffy 
west end, Ein-ahnnh-to cliffs, the whole coast of St. Paul is accessible, and affords an easy landing, except at the short reach of "Seethah" 
and the rookery points, as indicated. Tho great sand beach of this island extends from Lukannon to Polavina, thence to Webster's house, 
Novastoshnah ; from there over, and sweeping back and along the north shore to Nahsayvernia headland, then between Zapadnie and 
Tolstoi, together with the beautiful though short sand of Zoltoi. This extensive and slightly broken sandy coast is not described as 
peculiar to any other island in Alaska, or of Siberian waters. 

Fresh-WATER lakes. — There are no running streams at any season of the year on St. Paul; but the abundance of fresh water is 
plainly presented by the numerous hikes, all of which are "svayjoi", save the lagoon estuary. The four large reefs which I have located 
are each awash in every storm that blows from seaward over them ; they are all rough, rocky ledges. That little oue indicated in English 
bay caused the wrecking of a large British vessel in 1847, which was coming in to anchor just without Zapadnie; a number of the crew 
were "maaslucken",* so my native informant averred. 

Drift-wood.— Most of the small amount of drift-wood that is found on this island is procured at Northeast Point, and Polavina; the 
north shore from Maroonitch to Tsammanah has also been favored with sea- waif logs in exceptional seasons, to the exclusion of all other 
sections of the coast. The natives say that the St. George people get much more drift-wood every year, as a rule, than they do on 
St. Paul. From what I could see during my four seasons of inspection, they never have got much, under the best of circumstances, on 
either island. They pay little attention to it now, and gather what they do during the winter season, going to Polavina and the north 
shore with sleds, on which they hoist sails after loading there, and scud home before the strong northerly blasts. 

Captain Erskine informs me that the water is free and bold all around the north shore, from Cross hill to Southwest Point; no reefs or 
shoals up to within a half a mile of land anywhere. English bay is very shallow, and no sea-going vessel should attempt to enter it, that 
draws over 6 feet. 

Authorities for latitude and longitude.— All the positions of latitude and longitude which I place upon this map are taken from 
Captain Archimandritov's manuscript chart. During the whole month of July, 1874, while I was here with the "Reliance", there was not a 
single opportunity for a solar observation, although Captain Baker made several attempts to make some. Captain Erskine, however, has 
verified Archimandritov's work, and says that it is very near the correct thing. I could have taken observations easily in tho occasional 
clear November days of 1872, but, unfortunately, the chronometer which I had, proved so defective that I abandoned the labor. 

How to reach Walrus islet.— To visit Walrus island in a boat, pleasantly and successfully, it is best to submit to the advice and 
direction of the natives. They leave the village in the evening, and, taking advantage of the tide, proceed along the coast as far as the 
bluffs of Polavina, where they rest on their oars, doze and smoke, until the dawning of daylight, or later, perhaps, until the fog lifts enough 
for them to get a glimpse of the islet which they seek; they row over then in about two hours with their bidarrah. They leave, however, 
with perfect Indifference as to daylight or fog; nothing but a southeaster can disturb their tranquility when they succeed in landing on 
Walrus island. They wonld find it as difficult to miss striking the extended reach of St. Paul on their return, as they found it well 
nigh impossible to push off from Polavina and find "Morzovia" in a thick, windy fog and running sea. 

Otter islet: Slight correction.— Otter island, or " Bobrovia", is easily reached in almost any weather that is not very stormy, for 
it looms up high above the water. It takes the bidarrah about two hours to row over from the village, while I have gone across once in 
a whale-boat with less than one hot- sxpenditure of time, sail and oars, en route. A slight mistake of the engraver causes Crater point 
to appear as a bifurcated tongue. It is not so; but there is a funnel-shaped cavity here plainly emarginated from the sea, and on that 
extreme point, constituting and givi" to it this name. 

•Anything missing, or beyond human ken, in tho Aleutian vernacular is "maaslucken ". 



ANALYSIS 



Page 



A. Introduction. 

1. History and objects of the memoir 

B. Geographical Distribution. 

2. Geographical distribution of the fur-seal - 

C. The Prihylov Islands. 

3. Discovery of the Pribylov islands. [See also 31.] 

4. Description of the Pribylov islands. [See also -25-33.] ■ 

D. The Occupants of the Islands. 

5. The natives of the islands. [See also 39 F.] 

6. The Alaska Commercial Company. [See also 37.] 

7. The business concerned - 

E. The Seal-Life on the Pribylov Islands. 

8. The hair-seal - 

9. Life-history of the fur-seal 

10. The "hollusehickie" or "bachelor" seals— a description 

11. Description of the fur-seal rookeries of St. Paul and St. George 

12. Manner of taking the seals 

13. Manner of caring for and shipping the fur-seal skins. [See also 4.] 

14. Economic value of the skins, oil, and flesh of the far-seal 

F. The Sea-Lion, JEumetopias Stelleri. 

15. Life-history of the sea-lion 

lb'. Capture of the sea-lion 

17. Economic uses of the sea-lion -- — 

G. The Walrus of Bering Sea, Odobwnua obesus. 

16. Life-history of the walrus ■ 

H. The Reproduction of the Fur-Seal, Sea-Lion, and Walrus. 

19. Reproduction of the fur-seal 

20. Reproduction of the sea-lion 

21. Reproduction of the walrus 

I. Illustrative and Supplemental Notes. 

22. The Russian seal-islands, Bering and Copper, or the Commander group 

23. St. Matthew island and its relation to St. Paul 

24. Digest of the data in regard to the fur-seal rookeries of the South Atlantic and Pacific, and number of skius taken 

therefrom - 

25. Catalogue of the mammals of the Pribylov group 

26. Catalogue of the birds of the Pribylov group 

27. Catalogue of the fishes of the Pribylov group 

28. Notes on the invertebrates - - 

29. Notes on the plants 

30. Veniaminov on the Russian seal-industry at the Pribylov islands 

31. Veniaminov's account of the discovery of the Pribylov islands 

32. History of the organization of the Russian-American Fur Company 

33. Meteorological abstract for the mouths, from September, 1872, to April, 1873, inclusive 

34. The method of dressing the fur-seal skin 

35. Bering, not Behriug - 

36. The law protecting the seal-islands 

37. The organization and regulations of the Alaska Commercial Company 

38. Comments upon the legislation of Congress 

39. Paragraphs of reference relative to subjects discussed in the preceding memoir, and referred to as "Note 39" 

40. Final notes and tables relative,to the value, protection, and growth of the fur-seal; and the revenue derived from that 

industry on the Pribylov islands -. - 

Glossary; 

41. Definition of technical terms and Russian nomenclature, used by the author in the preceding monograph 

42. Weights, measures, and values..*-.. .; 

3 



8 
9 

19 
24 
26 

28 
29 
43 

48 
70 
76 
80 

84 
89 
91 



102 
108 
108 

109 
115 

117 
121 
125 
136 
137 
138 
140 
145 
148 
149 
151 
151 
153 
154 
157 
158 

165 

173 

175 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Map of St. Paul. > „ . . 
Map of St. George. \ Frontispieces. 

Plate I. — Proliles of the east coast of St. Paul 19 

II.— Meat frames, lighter, hut 21 

III. — Typical dress of the native 23 

IV. — The hair-seal, Phoca vituUna - - 2.3 

V. — The countenance of Callorhinus 29 

VI. — The fur-seal— a general group 32 

VII. — The natives selecting a drive 45 

VIII. — Sundry sketches from the author's portfolio 47 

IX. — The north shore of St. Paul island 57 

X. — The north rookery, etc., St. George island 61 

XI. — Pelagic attitudes of the fur-seal 65 

XII. — "Hollusehickie" sporting around the baidar » 67 

XIII. — Natives driviog the " Hollusehickie" - 71 

XIV.— The killing gang 73 

XV. — Kenching seal-skins 77 

XVI. — The sea-lion, Eumetopias StelleH 85 

XVII.— The black sea-lion, Zalophus Gilhspii 87 

XVIII. — Springing the alarm 89 

XIX. — The sea-lion corral or pen 91 

XX. — Spearing the surround; driving, and shooting old males 93 

XXI. — The walrus of Bering sea - 95 

XXII.— Plungiug the harpoon 97 

XXIII. — The walrus "coup" 39 

XXIV. — The Eskimo double purchase 101 

XXV.— Walrus islet i..'. 1<>3 

XXVI. — The Landseer and Edward figures of the fur-seal 109 

XXVII. — Sea-bird egging over cliffs of St. George -• 125 

XXVIII.— Sea-bird egging at Walrus island 127 

XXIX. — The Fulmar's niche , 135 



THE SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



A. INTRODUCTION. 

1. HISTORY AND OBJECTS OF THE MEMOIR. 

The writer's opportunities for observation. — Daring the progress of the heated controversies that took 
place during the negotiations which ended in the acquisition of Alaska by our government, frequent references were 
made to the fur-seal. Strange to say, this animal was so vaguely known at that time, even to scientific men, that it 
was almost without representation in any of the best zoological collections of the world: even the Smithsonian 
Institution did not possess a perfect skin and skeleton. The writer, then as now, an associate and collaborator of 
this establishment, had his curiosity very much excited by those stories, and in March, 1S72, he was, by the .joint 
action of Professor Baird and the Secretary of the Treasury, enabled to visit the Pribylov islands for the purpose 
of studying the life and habits of these animals. 

The fact is, that the acquisition of those pelagic peltries had engaged thousands of men, and that millions of 
dollars have been employed in capturing, dressing, and selling fur-seal skins during the hundred years just passed 
by ; yet, from the time of Steller, away back as far as 1751, up to the beginning of the last decade, the scientific 
world actually knew nothing definite in regard to the life-history of this valuable animal. The truth connected witli 
the life of the far-seal, as it herds in countless myriads on the Pribylov islands of Alaska, is far stranger than fiction. 
Perhaps the existing ignorance has been caused by confounding the hair-seal, Phoca vitulina, and its kind, with 
the creature now under discussion. Two animals more dissimilar in their individuality and method of living can, 
however, hardly be imagined, although they belong to the same group, and live apparently upon the same food. 

Tlie notes, surveys, and hypotheses herewith presented are founded upon the writer's personal observations 
in the seal-rookeries of St. Paul and St. George, during the seasons of 1872 to 1874, inclusive, supplemented 
by his confirmatory inspection made in 1870. They were obtained through long days and nights of consecutive 
observation, from the beginning to the close of each seal season, and cover, by actual surveys, the entire ground 
occupied by these animals. They have slumbered in the author's portfolio until the present moment, simply for the 
reason that he desired, before making a final presentation of the history of these islands and the life thereon, to visit 
the Russian seal-islands, the "Commanders", viz, Bering and Copper islands, which lie to the westward, 7U0 miles 
from our own, and are within the pale of the czars dominion. 

Previois obskkvatioxs op Steller and OTHERS. — In treating this subject the writer has trusted to 
nothing save what he himself lias seen; for, until these life-studies were made by him, no succinct and consecutive 
history of the lives and movements of these animals had been published by any man. Fanciful yarns, woven by the 
ingenuity of whaling captains, in which the truth was easily blended with that which was not true, and short 
paragi apbs penned hastily 1 >y naturalists of more or less repute, formed the knowledge that we had. Best of all was 
the old diary of Steller, who, while suffering bodily tortures, the legacy of gangrene and scurvy, when wrecked with 
Vitus Ik-ring on the Commander islands, showed the nerve, the interest, and the energy of a true naturalist. He 
daily crept, with aching bones and watery eyes, over the bowlders and mossy Hats of Bering island, to catch glimpses 
of those strange animals which abode there then as they abide to-day. Considering the physical difficulties that 
environed Steller. the notes made by him on the sea-bears of the North Pacific are remarkably good; but, as I have 
said, they tail so far from giving a lair and adequate idea of what these immense herds are and do, as to be absolutely 
valueless for the present hour. Shortly after Steller's time, great activity sprang up in the South Atlantic and 
Pacific over the capture and sale of fur-seal skins taken in those localities. It is extraordinary, that though whole 
tleets of American, English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese vessels engaged, (hiring a period of protracted enterprise, 
of over eighty years iu length, in the business of repairing to the numerous rookeries of the Antarctic, returning 



6 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

annually, laden with enormous cargoes of fur-seal shins; yet, as above mentioned, hardly a definite line of record 
has been made in regard to the whole transaction, involving, as it did, so much labor and so much capital. 

Former publications of the writer. — A brief digest of the writer's notes, relating principally to the 
business on the islands, was prepared and given to the Treasury Department in 1873-'74. This was printed by the 
Secretary, and has been the text of guidance, as to observation, employed by the agents of the government ever 
since. Tbe maps and sketch-maps are herewith accordingly given to the public for the first time; the author, 
fearing that private and personal affairs, which now confine him, may possibly never permit his going over to the 
Asiatic rookeries, thinks it perhaps better that what he now knows definitely in regard to the matter should be 
published without longer delay. 

It was with peculiar pleasure that the writer undertook, at the suggestion of Professor Baird, who is the 
honored and beloved secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, tbe task of examining into and reporting upon this 
subject; and it is also gratifying to add, that the statements of fact and the hypotheses evolved therefrom by him 
in 1S74, have, up to the present time, been verified by the inflexible sequence of events on the ground itself. The 
concurrent testimony of the numerous agents of the Treasury Department and the government generally, who have 
trodden in his footsteps, amply testifies to their stabibty. (See note, 39, A.) 



B. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 

2. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OP THE FUR-SEAL. 

Peculiarities op distribution. — Our first thought in studying the distribution of the fur-seals throughout 
the high seas of the earth, is one of wonder. While they are so widely spread over the Antarctic regions, yet, as 
we pass the equator going north, we find in the Atlantic above the tropics nothing that resembles them. Their 
range in the North Pacific is virtually confined to four islands in Bering sea, namely, St. Paul and St. George of 
tbe tiny Pribylov group, and Bering and Copper of the Commander islands, large in area, but relatively scant in 
seal-life. 

The remarkable discrepancy which we have alluded to may be better understood when we consider that these 
animals require certain conditions of landing and breeding ground and climate, all combined, for their perfect life 
and reproduction. In the North Atlantic no suitable territory for their reception exists, or ever did exist; and really 
nothing in the North Pacific beyond what we have designated in Bering sea will answer the requirements of the 
fur-seal. When we look over the Antarctic waters, we are surprised at what might have been done, and should have 
been done, in those southern oceans. There we find hundreds of miles of tbe finest seal-breeding grounds on tbe 
western coast of Patagonia, the beautiful reaches of the Falkland islands, the great extent of Desolation island, 
together with the whole host of smaller islets, where these animals abounded in almost countless numbers when 
first discovered, and should abound to-day — millions upon millions — but which have been, through nearly a century 
the victims of indiscriminate slaughter, directed by most unscrupulous and most energetic men. It seems well-nigh 
incredible, but it is true, nevertheless, that for more than fifty years a large fleet, numbering more than sixty sail, 
and carrying thousands of active men, traversed this coast and circumnavigated every island and islet, annually 
slaughtering right and left wherever the seal-life was found. Ships were laden to the water's edge with the fresh, 
air-dried, and salted skins, and they were swallowed up in the marts of the world, bringing mere nominal prices — 
the markets glutted, but the butchery never stopping. 

The seal-grounds in the southern hemisphere. — I will pass in brief review the seal-grounds of the 
southern hemisphere. The Galapagos islands come first in our purview; this scattered group of small rocks 
and islets, uninhabited and entirely arid, was, fifty years ago, resorted to by a very considerable number of 
these animals, Arctocephahis australis, together with inany sea-lions, Otaria Hooleri; great numbers were then 
captured by fur-sealers, who found to their sorrow, when the skins were inspected, that pelage was poor and 
Avorthless. A few survivors, however, remain to this day. 

Along and off the coast of Chili and Bolivia are the St. Felix and Juan Fernandez islands, the latter place 
being one of the most celebrated rookeries known to Antarctic sealers. The west coast of Patagonia and a portion 
of that of Terra del Fuego was, in those early days of seal-hunting, and is to-day, the finest connected range of 
seal-rookery ground in the south. Here was annually made the concentrated attack of that sealing fleet referred 
to; and one can readily understand how thorough must have been the labor, as he studies the great extent and 
deep indentation of this coast, its thousand and one islands and islets, and when he sees to-day that there is 
scarcely a rookery of fur-seals known to exist there. The Falkland islands, just abreast of the straits of Magellan, 
were also celebrated, and a favorite resort, not only of the sealers, but of the whale fleets of the world. They are 
recorded, in the brief mention made by the best authority, as fairly swarming with fur-seals when they were opened 
tip by Captain Coo'c. There is today, in the place of the millions that once existed, an insignificant number, 
taken notice of only now and then. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 7 

The Georgia islands and the Sandwich group, all a succession of rocky islauds and reefs awash — the South 
Orkneys, the Shetland*, the Auckland group, Campbell's island, Emerald island, and a few islets lying - just to the 
southward of New Zealand — have all been places of lively and continued butchery; the fur-seals ranging in 
desperation from one of those places to the other as the seasons progressed, and the merciless search and slaughter 
continued. These pinnipeds, however, never went to the southward of G12° south latitude. 

In considering the western Antarctic hemisphere, I must not forget also to mention, that the fur-seal was in 
early times found up the east coast of South America, here and there in little rookeries, as far north as cape St. 
Eoque; but the number was unimportant, when brought into contrast with that belonging to those localities which 
I have designated. A small cliff-bound rookery to-day exists at cape Corientes. This is owned and farmed out 
by the Argentine republic, and we are informed that in spite of all their care and attention they have neither 
increased nor have they diminished from their original insignificance; from this rookery only three to live thousand 
were and are annually taken. It appears as if the fur-seals had originally passed to Bering sea from the parent 
stock of the Patagonia region, up along the coast of South America, a few tarrying at the dry and heated Galapagos 
islands, the rest speeding on to the northward, disturbed by the clear skies and sandy beaches of the Mexican 
coast, on and up to the great fish-spawniug shores of the Aleutian islands and Bering sea. There, on the Pribylov 
group and the bluffy Commander islauds, they found that union of cool water, well-adapted lauding, and moist, 
foggy air which they had missed since they left the storm-beaten coasts far below. 

In the Antarctic waters of the eastern hemisphere seals were found at Tristan da Cunha, principally on Little 
Nightingale island, to the southward of it; on Cough's island; on Bouvet's island; Prince Edward and Marion 
islands ; the Crozette group, all small rocks, as it were, over which violent storms fairly swept ; then we observe 
the great rookeries of Kerguelen land, or Desolation island — where perhaps nine-tenths of all the oriental 
fur-seals congregated — thence over to a small and insignificant islet known as the Poyal Company, south of Good 
Hope. This list includes all the known resting-places of the fur-seal in those waters. 

FORMER ABUNDANCE IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE : EXTENT OF EXTERMINATIONS. — In the light of the 

foregoing remarks, is it not natural, when we reflect upon the immense area and the exceedingly favored conditions 
of ground and climate frequented by the fur-seals of the Southern ocean, to say that their number must have been 
infinitely greater as they were first apprehended, surpassing all adequate description, when compared to those 
which we now regard as the marvel and wonder of the age — the breeding rookeries of the Pribylov group? 

It is a great pity that this work of extermination and senseless destruction should have progressed as it has 
to the very verge of total extinction, ere any one was qualified to take note of and record the wonderful life 
thus eliminated. The Falkland islands and Kerguelen land, at least, might have been placed under the same 
restrictions and wholesome direction which the Russians established in the North seas, the benefits of which accrue 
to us to-day, and will forever, as matters are now conducted. Certainly it is surprising that the business thought, 
the hardheaded sense, of those early English navigators, should not have been equal to that of the Russian 
Promyshleuiks, who were renowned as the most unscrupulous and the greediest of gain-getters. 

Possibilities for protection. — The Falkland islands offer natural conditions of protection by land far 
superior to those found on the Pribylov or Commander groups. They have beautiful harbors, and they lie in the 
track of commerce, advantages which are not shared by our islands; at Desolation island, perhaps, the difficulties 
are insuperable on account of the great extent of coast, which is practically inaccessible to men and nearly so to 
the seals; but the Falkland islands might have been farmed out by the British government at a trifling outlay and 
with exceeding good result; for, millions upon millions of the fur-seals could rest there to-day, as they did a hundred 
years ago, and be there to-monow, as our seals do and are in Bering sea. But the work is done. There is nothing 
down there, now, valuable enough to rouse the interest of any government; still, a beginning might be made, which 
possibly forty or fifty years hence would rehabilitate the scourged and desolated breeding-grounds of the South seas. 
We are selfish people, however, and look only to the present, and it is, without question, more than likely that 
should any such proposition be brought before the British parliament it would be so ridiculed and exaggerated by 
demagogues and ignorant jesters as to cause its speedy suppression; hence, in our opinion, it is not at all likely 
that the English government, or any of the other governments controlling these many islauds of the Southern 
ocean, which we have named, will ever take a single step in the right direction, as far as the encouragement of the 
fur seal to live and prosper in those regions is concerned. "When we look at our northern waters we speedily 
recognize the fact, that between North America and Europe, across the Atlantic and into the Arctic, there is not a 
single island or islet or stretch of coast that the fur-seal could successfully struggle for existence on. These facts 
will become entirely clear when the chapter on the habit of this animal is reached. 

Isolation of the North Pacific rookerii;s. — In the North Pacific, in prehistoric times, a legend from 
Spanish authority states, that fur-seals were tolerably abundant on the Santa Barbara and Guadaloupe islauds, off 
the coast of California, and the peninsula to the southward. A few were annually taken from these islands, up to 1835 
and some were wont to sport on those celebrated rocks off the harbor of San Francisco, known as the Farraloues ; 
but no tradition locates a seal-rookery anywhere else on the northwest coast, or anywhere else in all Alaska and its 
islands, save the Pribylov group: while across and down the Asiatic coast, only the Commander islands and a little 



8 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

rock* in the Kurile chain have been and are resorted to by them. The crafty savages of that entire region, the 
hairy Amos of Japan, and the Japanese themselves, have for a hundred years searched and searched in vain for 

such ground. 

Commercial importance of the Alaska rookeries. — To recapitulate, with the exception of these seal- 
islands of Bering sea, there are none elsewhere in the world of the slightest importance to-day; the vast breeding- 
grounds bordering on the Antarctic have been, by the united efforts of all nationalities— misguided, short-sighted, 
and greedy of gain— entirely depopulated ; only a few thousand unhappy stragglers are now to be seen throughout 
all that southern area, where millions once were found, and a small rookery protected and fostered by the 
government of a South American state, north and south of the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. When, therefore, we 
note the eagerness with Avhich our civilization calls for sealskin fur, the fact that, in spite of fashion and its caprices, 
this fur is and always will be an article of intrinsic value and in demand, the thought at once occurs, that the 
government is exceedingly fortunate in having this great amphibious stock-yard far up and away in the quiet 
seclusion of Bering sea, from which it shall draw an everlasting revenue, and on which its wise regulations and its 
firm hand can continue the seals forever. N 



0. THE PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. 

3. DISCOVERY OF THE PEIBYLOV ISLANDS. 

Search of Russian explorers for sea-otters and seals. — All writers on the subject of Alaskan 
exploration and discovery, agree as to the cause of the discovery of the Pribylov islands in the last century. It 
was due to the feverish anxiety of a handful of Russian fur-gatherers, who desired to find new fields of gain when 
they had exhausted those last uncovered. Altasov, and his band of Russians, Tartars, and Kossacks, arrived at 
Kamtchatka, toward the close of the seventeenth century, and they first found of all men, the beautiful, costly, rare 
fur of the sea-otter. The animal bearing this pelage abounded then on that coast, but by the middle of the eighteenth 
century they and those who came after them had entirely extirpated it from that country. Then the survivors of 
Bering's second voyage of observation, in 1741-'42, and Tscherikov brought back an enormous number of skins from 
Bering island ; then Michael Novodiskov discovered Attoo, and the contiguous islands, in 1745 ; Paikov came after 
him and opened out the Fox islands, in the same chain, during 1759 ; then succeeded Stepan Glotov, of infamous 
memory, who determined Kakiak in 1703, and the peninsula of Alaska followed in order by Kreutsiu, 1768. During 
these long years, from the discovery of Attoo until the last date mentioned above, a great many Russian associations 
fitted out at the mouth of the Anioor river, in the Okotsk sea, and prospected therefrom this whole Aleutian 
archipelago in search of the sea-otter. There were perhaps twenty-five or thirty different companies, with quite a 
fleet of small vessels, and so energetic and thorough were they in their search and capture of the sea-otter, that 
along by 1772 and 1774 the catch in this group had dwindled down from thousands and tens of thousands at first, 
to hundreds and tens of hundreds at last. As all men do when they find that that which they are engaged in is 
failing them, a change of search and inquiry was in order, and then the fur-seal, which had been noted but not 
valued much, every year as it went north in the spring through the passes and channels of the Aleutian chain, then 
going back south again in the fall, became the source of much speculation as to where it spent its time on land and 
how it bred. Nobody had ever heard of its stopping one solitary hour on a single rock or beach throughout all 
Alaska or the northwest coast. The natives, when questioned, expressed themselves as entirely ignorant, though 
they believed, as they believe in many things of which they have no knowledge, that these seals repaired to some 
unknown land in the north every summer and left every winter. They also reasoned then, that when they left the 
unknown laud to the north in the fall, and went south into the North Pacific, they traveled to some other strange 
island or continent there, upon which in turn to spend the winter. Naturally the Russians preferred to look for the 
supposed winter resting-places of the fur-seal, aud forthwith a hundred schooners and shallops sailed into storm 
and fog to the northward occasionally, but generally to the southward, in search of this rumored breeding-ground. 
Indeed, if the record can be credited, the whole. bent of this Russian attention and search for the fur-seal islauds 
was devoted to that region south of the Aleutian islands, between Japan and Oregon. 

Pribylov's discovery of the islands wnicn bear his name. — Hence it was not until 17S6, after more 
than eighteen years of unremitting search by hardy navigators, that the Pribylov islands were discovered. It seems 
that a rugged Muscovitic "stoorman", or ship's "mate", Gekrman Pribylov by name, serving under the direction 
and in the pay of one of the many companies engaged in the fur business at that time, Was much moved and 
exercised in his mind by the revelations of an old Aleutian shaman at Oonalashka, who pretended to recite a legend 
of the natives, wherein he declared that certain islands in the Bering sea had long been known to Aleuts.t 

Pribylov commanded a small sloop, the "St. George", which he employed for three successive years in 
constant, though fruitless, explorations to the northward of Oonalashka and Oonimak, ranging over the whole of 

* Robbins reef. t This legend is translated by the author, and published in the Appendix. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 9 

Bering sea from the straits above. His ill-success does not now seem strange, when we understand the currents, the 
winds atld fogs of those waters. Why, only recently the writer himself has been on one of the best-inanued vessels 
that ever sailed from any port, provided with good charts and equipped with all the marine machinery known to 
navigation, and that vessel has hovered for nine successive days oil' the north point and around St. Paul island, 
sometimes almost on the reef, and never more than ten miles away, without actually knowing where the island 
was ! So Pribylov did well, considering, when at the beginning of the third summer's tedious search, in June, 1 786, 
his old sloop ran up against the walls of Tolstoi Mees, at St. George, and when, though the fog was so thick that 
he could see scarce the length of his vessel, his ears were regaled by the sweet music of seal-rookeries wafted out 
to him on the heavy air. He knew then that he had found the object of his search, and he at once took possession 
of the island in the Russian name and that of his craft. 

His secret could not long be kept, He had left some of his men behind him to hold the island, and when he 
returned to Oonalashka they were goue. And, when the next season had fairly opened, a dozen vessels were 
watching him and trimming in his wake. Of course they all found the island, and in that year, July, 1787, the 
sailors of Pribylov, on St. George, while climbing the bluffs and straining their eyes for a relief-ship, descried the 
low coast ami scattered cones of St. Paul, thirty-six miles to the northwest of them. When they landed at St. 
George, not a sign nor a vestige of human habitation was found thereon ; but during the succeeding year, when they 
crossed over to St. Paul, and took possession of it, in turn, they were surprised at finding on the south coast of that 
island, at a point now known as English bay, the remains of a recent lire. There were charred embers of driftwood, 
and places where grass had been scorched; there was a pipe, and a brass knife handle, which I regret to say have 
long passed beyond the cognizance of any ethnologist. This much appears in the Eussian records. 

4. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIBYLOV ISLANDS. 

The Pribylov islands lie in the heart of Bering sea, and are among the most insignificant landmarks known 
in fhat ocean. They are situated 1!>H miles north of Oonalashka, 200 miles south of St. Matthews, and about the 
same distance, westward of cape Xewenham on the mainland. 

Climate.— The islands of St. George and St. Paul are from twenty-seven to thirty miles apart, St. George 
lying southeastward of St. Paul. They are far enough south to be beyond the reach of permanent ice-floes, upon 
which polar bears could have made their way to the islands, though a lew of these animals were, doubtless, always 
pres&it. They laid also distant enough from the inhabited Aleutian districts and the coast of the mainland 
to have remained unknown to savage men. Hence they afforded the fur-seal the happiest shelter and isolation, 
for their position seems to be such as to surround and envelop them with fog-banks that fairly shut out the sun 
nine days in every ten, during the summer and breeding-season. 

In this location, ocean-currents from the great Pacific, warmer than the normal temperature of that latitude, 
trending up from southward, ebb and How around the islands as they pass, giving rise, during the summer and 
early autumn, to constant, dense, humid fog and drizzling mists, which hang in heavy banks over the islands and the 
sea-line, seldom dissolving away to indicate a pleasant day. By the noddle or end of October, strong, cold winds, 
refrigerated on the Siberian steppes, sweep down across the islands, carrying off the moisture and clearing up the 
air. By the end of January, or early in February, they usually bring, by their steady pressure, from the north and 
northwest, great fields of broken ice. sludgy floes, with nothing in them approximating or approaching glacial ice. 
They are not very heavy or thick, but still as the wind blows they compactly cover the whole surface of the sea, 
completely shutting in the land, ami for months at a time hushing the wonted roar of the surf. In the exceptionally 
cold seasons that succeed each other up there every four or five years, for periods of three and even four mouths— 
from December to May, and sometimes into Jane— the islands will be completely environed and ice-bound. On 
the other hand, in about the same rotation, occur the exceptionally mild winters. Xot even the sight of an ice-iloe 
is recorded during the whole winter, and there is very little skating on the shallow lakes and lagoons peculiar to 
St, Paul and St George. This, however, is not often the case. 

The breaking-up of winter-weather and the precipitation of summer (for there is no real spring or autumn in 
these latitudes), usually commences about the first week in April. The ice begins to leave or dissolve at that time, 
or a little later, so that by the 1st or 5th of May, the beaches and rocky sea-margin beneath the mural precipices 
are generally clear and free from ice and snow, although the latter occasionally lies, until the end of July or the 
middle of August, in gullies and on leeward hill-slopes, where it has drifted during the winter. Fog, thick 
and heavy, lolls up from the sea, and closes over the land about the end of May ; this, the habitual sign of summer, 
holds on steadily to the middle or end of October again. 

The periods of change in climate are exceedingly irregular dining the autumn and spring, so-called, but in 
summer the cool, moist, shady, gray fog is constantly present. To this certainty of favored climate, coupled with 
the perfect isolation and the exceeding fitness of the ground, is due without doubt, that preference manifested by 
the warm-blooded animals which come here every year, iu thousands and hundreds of thousands, to breed, to the 
practical exclusion of all other ground. 



10 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

A large amount of information in regard to the climate of these islands lias been collected and recorded by the 
signal service, United States army, and similar observations are still continued by the agents of the Alaska 
Commercial Company. I simply remark here, that the winter which I passed upon St. Paul island (1872-73) was 
one of great severity, and, according to the natives, such as is very seldom experieuced. Cold as it was, however, 
the lowest marking of the thermometer was only 12° Fahr. below zero, and that lasted but a few hours during a single 
day in February, while the mean of that month was 18° above. I found that March was the coldest month. Then 
the mean was 12° above, and I have since learned that March continues to be the meanest month of the year. The 
lowest average of a usual winter ranges from 22° to 26° above zero; but these quiet figures are simply inadequate 
to impress the reader with the exceeding discomfort of the winter in that locality. It is the wind that tortures and 
cripples out-door exercise there, as it does on all the sea-coast and islands of Alaska. It is blowing, blowing, from 
every point of the compass at all times; it is an everlasting succession of furious gales, laden with snow and sleety 
spicule, whirling in great drifts to-day, while to morrow the "boorga" will blow from a quarter directly opposite, 
and reverse its rift-building of the day preceding. 

"Without being cold enough to suffer, one is literally confined and chained to his room from December until 
April by this seolian tension. I remember very well that, during the winter of 1872-'73, 1 was watching, with all the 
impatience which a man in full health and tired of confinement can possess, every opportunity to seize upon quiet 
intervals between the storms, in which I could make short trips along the tracks over which I was habituated 
to walk during the summer; yet, in all that hyemal season I got out but three times; and then only by the exertion 
of great physical energy. On a day in March, for example, the velocity of the wind at St. Paul, recorded by one 
of the signal service anemometers, was at the rate of 88 miles per hour, with as low a temperature as — 4°! 
This particular wind-storm, with snow, blew at such a velocity for six days without an hour's cessation, while the 
natives passed from house to house crawling on all-fours: no man could stand up against it, and no man wanted 
to. At a much higher temperature — say at 15° or 1G° above zero — with the wind blowing only 20 or 25 miles an 
hour, it is necessary, when journeying, to be most thoroughly wrapped up, to guard against freezing. 

As I have said, there are here virtually but two seasons — winter and summer. To the former belongs November 
and the following months up to the end of April, with a mean temperature of 20° to 28° ; while the transition of 
summer is but a very slight elevation of that temperature, not more than 15° or 20°. Of the summer mouths, July, 
perhaps, is the warmest, with an average temperature between 46° and 50° in ordinary seasons. When the sun 
breaks out through the fog, and bathes the dripping, water soaked hills and flats of the island iu its hot flood of 
light, I have known the thermometer to rise to G0° and 64° in the shade, while the natives crawled out of the 
fervent and unwonted heat, anathematizing its brilliancy and potency. Sunshine does them no good ; for, like the 
seals, they seem under its influence to swell up at the neck. A little of it suffices handsomely for both Aleuts and 
pinnipedia, to whom the ordinary atmosphere is much more agreeable. 

It is astonishing how rapidly snow melts here. This is due, probably, to the saline character of the air, for 
when the temperature is only a single degree above freezing, and after several successive days in April or May, at 
34° and 30°, grass begins to grow, even if it be below melting drifts, and the frost has penetrated the ground many 
feet beneath. I have said that this humidity and fog, so strongly and peculiarly characteristic of the Pribylov group, 
was due to the warmer ocean-currents setting up from the coast of Japan, and trending to the Arctic through Bering's 
straits, and deflected to the southward into the North Pacific, laving, as it flows, the numerous passes and channels of 
the great Aleutian chain; but I do not think, nor do I wish to be understood as saying, that my observation in this 
respect warrants any T conclusion as to so large a gulf-stream flowing to the north, such as mariners and hydrographers 
recognize upon the Atlantic coast. I do not believe that there is anything of the kind eqrral to it in Bering sea. 
I think, however, that there is a steady set-up to northward from southward around the seal-islands, which 
is continued through Bering's straits, and drifts steadily off up to the northeast, until it is lost beyond Point Barrow. 
That this pelagic circulation exists, is clearly proven by the logs of the whalers, who, from 1S45 to 1856, literally 
filled the air over those waters with the smoke of their "try- fires", and plowed every square rod of that superficial 
marine area with their adventurous keels. While no two, perhaps, of those old whaling captains living to-day, 
will agree as to the exact course of tides,* for Alaskan tides do not seem to obey any law, they all 
affirm the existence of a steady current, passing up from the south to the northeast, through Bering's straits. 
The flow is not rapid, and is doubtless checked at times, for short intervals, by other causes, which need not be 
discussed here. It is certain, however, that there is warm water enough, abnormal to the latitude, for the evolution 
of the characteristic fog-banks, which almost discomfited Pribylov, at the time of his discovery of the islands, 
nearly one hundred years ago, and which have remained ever since. 

Without this fog the fur-seal would never have rested there as he has done ; but when he came on his voyage of 
discovery, ages ago, up from the rocky coasts of Patagonia, mayhap, had he not found this cool, moist temperature 
of St. Paul and St. George, he would have kept on, completed the circuit, and returned to those congenial 
antipodes of his birth. 

The rise and fall of tide at the seal-islands I carefully watched one whole season at St. Paul. The irregularity, however, of ebb and 
flow, is the most prominent feature of the matter. The highest rise in the spring tides was a trifle over four feet, while that of the neap 
tides not much over two. Owing to the nature of the ease, it is impossible to prepare a tidal calendar for Alaska, above the Aleutian 
islands, which will even faintly foreshadow a correct registration in advance. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 11 

Clouds. — Speaking' of the stormy wen tlier brings to my mind tbe beautiful, varied, and impressive nephelogical 
displ: y in the heavens overhead here during October and November. I may say, without exaggeration, that the 
cloud effects which 1 have witnessed from the bluffs of this little island, in those seasons of the year, surpass anything 
that I had ever seen before. Perhaps the mighty masses of cumuli, deriving their origin from warm exhalations out 
of the sea, and swelled and whirled with such rapidity, in spite of their appearance of solidity, across the horizon, 
owe their striking brilliancy of color and prismatic tones to that low declination of the sun due to the latitude. 
Whatever the cause may be, and this is not the place to discuss it, certainly no other spot on earth can boast of a 
more striking and brilliant cloud-display. In the season of 1SG5-'GG, when I was encamped on this same parallel of 
latitude in the mountains eastward of Sitka and the interior, I was particularly attracted by the exceeding 
brilliancy, persistency, and activity of the aurora; but here on St. Paul, though I eagerly looked for its dancing 
light, it seldom appeared; and when it did, it was a sad disappointment, the exhibition always being insignificant 
when compared in my mind with that flashing of my previous experience. A quaint old writer,* a hundred 
years ago, when describing Norway and its people, called attention to what he considered a very plausible theory as 
to the cause of the aurora; he cited an ancient sage, who believed that the change of the winds threw the saline 
particles of the sea high into the air, and then, by aerial friction, "fermentation" took place, and the light was 
evolved! I am sure that the saline particles of Bering sea were whirled into the air during the whole of that winter 
of my residence there, but no " fermentation" occurred, evidently, for rarely indeed did the aurora greet my eyes. In 
the summer season there is considerable lightning; you will see it streak- its zigzag path mornings, evenings, and 
even noondays, but from the dark clouds and their swelling masses upon which it is portrayed no sound returns; 
afulyur brutum, in fact. I remember hearing but one clap of thunder while in that country. If I recollect aright, 
and my Russian served me well, one of the old natives told me that it was no mystery, this light of the aurora, 
for, said he, "we all believe that there are fire-mountains away up toward the uorth, and what we see comes from 
their burning throats, mirrored back on the heavens". 

Geological structure. — The formation of these islands, St. Paul and St. George, was recent, geologically 
speaking, and directly due to volcanic agency, which lifted them abruptly, though gradually, from the sea-bed. 
Little spouting craters then actively poured out cinders and other volcanic breccia upon the table-bed of basalt, 
depositing below as well as above the water's level as they rose ; and subsequently finishing their work of 
construction through the agency of these spout-holes or craters, from which water-puddled ashes aud tufa were 
thrown. Soon after the elevation and deposit of the igneous matter, all active volcanic action must have ceased, 
though a few half-smothered outbursts seem to have occurred very recently indeed; for on Bobrovia or Otter island, 
six miles southward of St. Paul, is the fresh, clearly blown-out throat, with the fire-scorched and smoked, smooth, 
sharp-cut, funnel-like walls of a crater. This is the only place on the seal-islands where there are any evidences of 
recent discharges from the crater of a volcano. 

Since the period of the upheaval of the group under discussion, the sea has done much to modify and even 
enlarge the most important one, St. Paul, while the others, St. George and Otter, being lifted abruptly above the 
power of water and ice to carry aud deposit sand, soil, and bowlders, are but little changed from the condition of 
their first appearance. 

Vegetation. — The Russians tell a rather strange story in connection with Pribylov's landing. They say that 
both the islands were at first without vegetation t, save St. Paid, where there was a small "talneek", or willow, 
creeping along on the ground ; and that on St. George nothing grew, not even grass, except on the place where the 
carcasses of dead animals rotted. Then, in the course of time, both islands became, covered with grass, a great part 
of it being of the sedge kind, Ehjmus. This record of Yeniaminov, however, is scarcely credible; there are few, 
surely, who will not question the opinion that the seals antedated the vegetation, for, according to his own 
statements, those creatures were there then in the same immense numbers that we find them to-day. The 
vegetation on these islands, such as it is, is fresh aud luxuriant during the growing season of June and July and 
early August, but the beauty and economic value of trees and shrubbery, of cereals and vegetables, is denied to 
them by climatic conditions. Still I am strongly inclined to believe that, should some of those hardy shrubs and 
spruce trees indigenous at Sitka or Kadiak, be transplanted properly to any of the southern hill-slopes of St. Paul 
most favored by soil, drainage, aud bluffs for shelter from saline gales, they might grow, though I know that, 
owing to the lack of sunlight, they would never mature their seed. There is, however, during the summer, a 
beautiful spread of grasses, of flowering annuals, biennials, and perennials, of gaily-colored lichens and crinkled 
mosses +, which have always afforded me great delight whenever I have pressed my way over the moors and up the 
hillsides of the rookeries. 

There are ten or twelve species of grasses of every variety, from close, curly, compact mats to tall stalks^ 
tussocks of the wild wheat, Ehjmus armaria, standing iu favorable seasons waist high — the " wheat of the north? — 
together with over one hundred varieties of annuals, perennials, spagnum, cryptogamic plants, etc., all flourishing 
iu their respective positions, aud covering nearly every point of rock, tufa, cement, and sand that a plant can grow 

"Poutoppidan. tVeniaminov : Zapieskie Ooualaskkeuskaho Otdayla, etc., 1842. 

tThe mosses at Kamruinista, St. Paul, are the finest examples of their kind on the islands; they are very perfect and beautiful in 
many species. 



12 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

upon, with a living coat of the greenest of all greens — for there is not sunlight enough there to ripen any 
perceptible tinge of ocher-yellow into il — so green that it gives a deep blue tint to gray noonday shadows, 
contrasting pleasantly with the varying russets, reds, lemon-yellows, and grays of the lichen-covered rocks, and 
the brownish purple of the wild wheat on the sand-dune tracts in autumn, together, also, with innumerable blue, 
yellow, pink, and white phreuogarnous blossoms, everywhere interspersed over the grassy uplands and sandy flats. 
Occasionally, on looking into the thickest masses of verdure, our common wild violet will be found, while the 
phloxes are especially bright and brilliant here. The flowers of one species of gentian, Gentiana verna, are very 
marked in their beauty; also those of a nasturtium, and a creeping pea- vine on the sand-dunes. The blossom of 
one species of the pulse family is the only one here that emits a positive, rich perfume; all the others are more 
suggestive of that quality than expressive. The most striking plant in all the long list is the Arehangelica 
officinalis, with its tall seed-stalks and broad leaves, which grows first in spring and keeps green latest in the fall. 
The luxuriant rhubarb-like stems of this umbellifer, after they have made their rapid growth in June, are eagerly 
sought for by the natives, who pull them and crunch them between their teeth with all the relish that we experience 
iu eating celery. The exhibition of ferns at Kamminista, St. Paul, during the summer of 1S72, surpassed anything 
that I ever saw : I recall with vivid detail the exceedingly fine display made by these crenulated and waving fronds, 
as they reared themselves above the rough interstices of the rocky ridges. From the fer^i roots, and those of the 
gentian, the natives here draw their entire stock of vegetable medicines. This floral display on St. Paul is very 
much more extensive and conspicuous than that on St. George, owing to the absence of any noteworthy extent of 
warm sand-dune country on the latter island. 

When an unusually warm summer passes over the Pribylov group, followed by an open fall and a mild winter, 
the Elymus ripens its seed, and stands like fields of uncut grain, in many places along the north shore of St. Paul 
and around the village, the snow not falling enough to entirely obliterate it; but it is seldom allowed to flourish to 
that extent. By the end of August and the first week of September of normal seasons, the small edible berries 
of Envpetrum nigrum and Rubus chamccmorus are ripe. They are found in considerable quantities, especially at 
"Zapadnie", on both islands, and, as everywhere else throughout the circumpolar latitudes, the former is small, 
watery, and dark, about the size of the English or black currant ; the other resembles an unripe and partially 
decayed raspberry. They are, however, keenly relished by the natives, and even by the American residents, being 
the only fruit growing upon the islands. 

Agriculture and its possibilities. — A great many attempts have been made, both here and at St. 
George, to raise a few of the hardy vegetables. With the exception of growing lettuce, turnips, and radishes on 
the island of St. Paul, nothing has been or can be done. On St. George, on the south shore, and at the foot of a 
mural bluff, is a little patch of ground of less than one-sixteenth of an acre, that appears to be so drained and so 
warmed by the rarely-reflected sunlight from this cliff, every ray of which seems to be gathered and radiated from 
the rocks, as to allow the production of fair turnips; and at one season there were actually raised potatoes as large 
as walnuts. Gardening, however, on either island involves so much labor and so much care, with so poor a return, 
that it has been discontinued. It is a great deal better, and a great deal easier, to have the "truck" come up once 
a year from San Francisco on the steamer. 

Insects. — There is one comfort which nature has vouchsafed to civilized man on these islands. There are very 
few indigenous insects. A large flesh-fly, Bombylius major, appears during the summer and settles in a striking 
manner upon the backs of the loafiug natives, or strings itself in rows of millions upon the long grass-blades which 
flourish over the killing grounds, especially on the leaf-stalks of the Elymus, causing this vegetation, on the whole 
slaughtering-field and viciuity, to fairly droop to earth as if beaten down by a tornado of wind and rain. It makes 
the landscape look as though it had molded in the night, and the fungoid spores were blue and gray. Our common 
house-fly is not present; I never saw one while I was up there. The flesh-flies which I have just mentioned never 
came into the dwellings unless by accident: the natives say they do not annoy them, and I did not notice any 
disturbance among the few animals which the resident company had imported for beef and for service. 

Then, again, this is perhaps the only place in all Alaska where man, primitive and civilized, is not cursed by 
mosquitoes. There are none here. A gnat, that is disagreeably suggestive of the real enemy just referred to, flits 
about in large swarms, but it is inoffensive, and seeks shelter in the grass. Several species of beetles are also 
numerous here. One of them, the famous green and gold "carabus", is exceedingly common, crawling everywhere, 
and is just as bright in the rich bronzing of its wing-shields as are its famous prototypes of Brazil. One or two 
species of Ichneumon, a Cymindis, several representatives of the Aphidiphaga, one or two of Bytiscidcc, three or 
four Gicindelidce— these are nearly all that I found. A single dragon-fly, Perla bicaudatu, flitted over. the lakes and 
ponds of St. Paul. The, to our eyes, familiar form of the bumble-bee, Bombus borealis, passing from flower to 
flower, was rarely seen; but a few are here resident. The Hydrocorisw occur in great abundance, skipping over the 
water in the lakes and pools everywhere, and a very few species of butterflies, principally the yellow Nymphalidce, 
are represented by numerous individuals. 

Land mammals. — Aside from the seal-life on the Pribylov islands, there is no indigenous mammalian creature, 
with the exception of the blue and white foxes, Vulpes lagopus, and the lemming, Myodes obensis. The latter is 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 13 

restricted, for some reason or other, to the island of St. George, where it is, or at least was, in LS74, very abundant. 
Its burrows' and paths, under and among the grassy hummocks and mossy Hats, checkered every square rod of land 
l here covered with this vegetation. Although the island of St. Paul is but 29 or 30 miles to the northwest, not a single 
one of these active, curious little animals is found on it, nor could I learn from the natives that it had ever been 
seen there. The foxes are also restricted to these islands; that is, their kind, which are not found elsewhere, except 
the stray examples on St. Matthew seen by myself, aud those which are carefully domesticated and preserved 
at Attoo, the extreme westernmost land of the Aleutian chain. These animals find comfortable holes for their 
accommodation ami retreat on the seal-islands, among the countless chinks and crevices of the basaltic formation. 
They feed and grow fat upon sick aud weakly seals, also devouring many of the pups, and they vary this diet by 
water-fowl and eggs* during the summer, returning for their subsistence during the long winter to the bodies of 
seals upon the breeding-grounds and the skinned carcasses left upon the killing-fields. Were they not regularly 
hunted from December until April, wheu their fur is in its prime beauty and condition, they would swarm like the 
lemming on St. George, and perhaps would soon be obliged to eat one another. The natives, however, thin them 
out by incessant trapping and shooting during the period when the seals are away from the islauds. 

The Pribylov group is as yet free from rats; at least, none have got off from the ships. There is no harbor 
at either of these islands, and the slaps lie out in the roadstead, so far from land that these pests do not venture 
to swim to the shore. Mice were long ago brought to shore in ships' cargoes, and they are a great nuisance to 
the white people as well as the natives throughout the islands. Hence cats also are abundant. Nowhere perhaps 
in the wide world are such cats to be seen as these. The tabby of our acquaintance, when she goes up there and 
lives upon the seal-meat spread everywhere under her nose, is metamorphosed, by time of the second generation, 
into a stubby feline ball; in other words, she becomes thickened, short, and loses part of the normal length of her 
tail ; also her voice is prolonged and resonant far beyond the misery which she inflicts upon our ears here. These 
cats actually swarm about the natives' houses, never in them much, for only a tithe of their whole number can 
be made pets of; but they do make night hideous beyond all description. They repair for shelter, often, to the 
chinks of precipices, aud Muffs, but, although not exactly wild, yet they cannot be approached or cajoled. The 
natives, when their sluggish wits are periodically thoroughly aroused and disturbed by the volume of cat-calls 
in the village, sally out and by a vigorous effort abate the nuisance for the time being. The most extravagant 
caterwauling alone will or can arouse this Aleutian ire. 

Stock axd poultey-eaistng. — On account of the severe climatic conditions it is of course impracticable 
to keep stock here With any profit or pleasure. The experiment has been tried faithfully. It is found best to bring 
beef-cattle up in the spring on the steamer, turn them out to pasture until the close of the season, in October and 
November, and then, if the snow comes, to kill them and keep them refrigerated the rest of the year. Stock 
cannot be profitably raised here, the proportion of severe weather annually is too great — from three to perhaps 
six mouths of every year they require feeding and watering, with good shelter. To furnish an animal with bay 
and grain up there is a costly matter, and the dampness of the growing summer season on both islands renders 
hay-making impracticable. Perhaps a few head of hardy Siberian cattle might pick up a living on the north shore 
of St. Paul, among the grasses and sand-dunes there, with nothing more than shelter and water given them, but 
they would need both of those attentions. Then the care of them would hardly return expenses, as the entire 
grazing ground could not support any number of animals. It is less than two square miles in extent, and half 
of this area is unproductive. Then, too, a struggle for existence would reduce the flesh and vitality of these 
cattle to so low an ebb, that it is doubtful whether they could be put through another winter alive, especially if 
severe. I was then, aud am now, strongly inclined to think, that if a few of those Siberian reindeer could be 
brought over to St. Paul and to St. George, they woidd make a very successful struggle for existence, and be a 
source of a good supply, summer and winter, of fresh meat for the agents of the government and the company who 
may be living upon the islands. I do not think that they would be inclined to molest or visit the seal-grounds ; at 
least, I noticed that the cattle and mules of the company running loose on St. Paul, were careful never to poke 
around on the outskirts of a rookery, and deer would be more timid and less obtrusive than our domesticated 
animals. But I did notice on St. George that a little squad of sheep, brought up and turned out there for a 
summer's feeding, seemed to be so attracted by the quiet calls of the pups on the rookeries, that they were drawn 
to and remained by the seals without disturbing them at all, to their own physical detriment, for they lost better 

"The temerity of the fox is wonderful to contemplate, as it goes on a full run or stealthy tread up and down and along the faces of 
almost inaccessible hlulfs, in search of old and young birds and their nests and eggs, for which the "peestchee" have a keen relish. The 
firs always brings the egg up in its mouth, and. carrying it back a few feet from the brink of the precipice, leisurely and with gusto breaks 
the larger end and sucks the contents from the shell. One of the curious sights of my notice in this connection, was the sly, artful, and 
insidious advances of Reynard at Tolstoi Moes, St. George, where, conspicuous and elegant in its fluffy white dress, it cunningly stretched 
on its back as though dead, making no sign of life whatever, save to gently hoist its thick brush now and then ; whereupon many dull, 
curious sea-birds, 6 racuhm bicrisiatus, in their intense desire to know all about it, flew in narrowing circles overhead, lower and lower, 
closer and closer, until one of them came within the sure reach of a sudden spring and a pair of quick snapping jaws, while the gulls 
and others, rising sal'- and high aim v. , si reamed out in seeming contempt for the struggles of the unhappy "shag", and rendered hidcons 
approbation. 



U THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

pasturage by so doing. The natives of St. Paul have a strange passion for seal-fed pork, and there are quite a 
huge number of hogs on the island of St. Paul and a few on St. George. The pigs soon become entirely carnivorous, 
living, to the practical exclusion of all other diet, on the carcasses of seals. 

Chickens are kept with much difficulty, in fact it is only possible to save their lives when the natives take them 
into their own rooms, or keep them above their heads, in their dwellings, during winter. 

Bird-life. — While the great exhibition of pinnipedia preponderates over every other feature of animal life on 
the seal-islands, still we find a wonderful aggregate of ornithological representation thereon. The spectacle of birds 
nesting and breeding, as they do at St. George island, to the number of millions, flecking those high basaltic blufl's 
of its shore-line, 29 miles in length, with color-patches of black, brown, and white, as they perch or cling to the 
mural cliffs in the labor of incubation, is a sight of exceeding attraction and constant novelty. It affords the 
naturalist an opportunity of a life-time for minute investigation into all the details of the reproduction of these vast 
flocks of circumboreal water-fowl. The island of St. Paul, owing to the low character of its shore-line, a large 
proportion of which is but slightly elevated above the sea and is sandy, is not visited, and cannot be visited, by 
such myriads of birds as are seen at St. George; but the small, rocky Walrus islet is fairly covered with sea-fowls, 
and the Otter island bluffs are crowded by them, to their utmost capacity of reception. The birds string themselves 
anew around the clifl's with every succeeding season, like endless ribbons stretched across their rugged faces, while 
their numbers are simply countless. The variety is not great, however, in these millions of breeding-birds. It consists 
of only ten or twelve names; the whole list of avafauna belonging to the Pribylov islands, stragglers and migatory, 
contains but 40 species. Conspicuous among the last-named class is the robin, a straggler which was brought from 
the main land, evidently against its own effort, by a storm or a gale of wind, which also brings against their will 
the solitary hawks, owls, and waders, occasionally noticed here. 

After the dead silence of a long ice bound winter, the arrival of large flocks of those sparrows of the north, the 
" choochkies," Plialeris microceros, is most cheerful and interesting. Those plump little auks are bright, fearless, 
vivacious birds, with bodies round and fat. They come usually in chattering flocks on or immediately after the 1st 
of May, and are caught by the people with hand-scoops or dip-nets to any number that may be required for the 
day's consumption; their tiuy, rotund forms making pies of rare, savory virtue, and "being also baked and roasted 
and stewed in every conceivable shape by the Bussian cooks — indeed they are equal to the reed-birds of the South. 
These welcome visitors are succeeded along about the 20th of July by large flocks of fat, red-legged turn-stones, 
Strepsilas inferpres, which come in suddenly from the west or north, where they have been breeding, and stop on 
the islands for a month or six weeks, as the case may be, to feed luxuriantly upon the flesh-flies, which we have 
just noticed, and their eggs. Those handsome birds go in among the seals, familiarly chasing the flies, gnats, etc. 
They are followed, as they leave in September, by several species of jack-snipe and a plover, Tringa and Chwra&rius; 
these, however, soon depart, as early as the end of October and the beginning of November, and then winter fairly 
closes in upon the islands; the loud, roaring, incessant seal-din, together with the screams and darkening flight of 
innumerable water-fowl, are replaced in turn again by absolute silence, marking out as it were in lines of sharp and 
vivid contrast, summer's life and winter's death. 

The author of that quaint old saying, "Birds of a feather flock together," might well have gained his inspiration 
had he stood under the high bluffs of St. George at any season, prehistoric or present, during the breeding of the 
water-birds there, where myriads of croaking murres and flocks of screaming gulls darken the light of day with 
their fluttering forms, and deafen the ear with their shrill, harsh cries as they do now, for music is denied to all 
those birds of the sea. Still, in spite of the apparent confusion, he would have taken cognizance of the fact, that 
each species had its particular location and kept to its own boundary, according to the precision of natural law. 

Fishes. — With regard to the herpetology of the islands, I may state that the most careful search on my part 
was not rewarded by the discovery of a single reptile. In the province of ichthyology I gathered only a few 
specimens, the scarcity offish being easily traceable to the presence of tbe seals on the grounds here. Naturally 
enough the finny tribes avoid the seal-churned waters for at least one hundred miles arouud. Among the few 
specimens, however, which I collected, three or four species new to natural science were found and have since been 
named by experts in the Smithsonian Institution. 

The presence of such great numbers of amphibian mammalia about the waters, during five or six months of 
every year, renders all fishing abortive, and unless expeditions are made seven or eight miles at least from the land, 
and you desire to catch large halibut, it is a waste of time to cast your line over the gunwhale of the boat. The 
natives capture "poltoos" or halibut, Hippoglossus vulgaris, within two or three miles of the Beef-point on St. 
Paul and the south shore during July and August. After this season the weather is' usually so stormy and cold 
that the fishermen venture no more until the ensuing summer. 

Aquatic invertebrates. — With regard to the Molhisca of the Pribylov waters, the characteristic forms of 
Toxoglossata and Hctcroglosmta peculiar to this north latitude are most abundant; of the Cephalopoda I have 
seen only a species of squid, Sepia loligo. The clustering whelks, Biwcinoul, literally conceal large areas of the 
bowlders on the beaches here and there; they are in immense numbers, and are crushed under your foot at almost 



. THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 15 

every step when you pass over long reaches of rocky shingle at -low tide. A few of the larger Fusus are found, 
and the live and dead .-hells of Limacina are in great abundance wherever the floating kelp-beds afford them shelter. 

On land a very large number of shells of the genera Suocinea and Pupa abound all over the islands; on the 
bluffs of St. George just over Garden cove I gathered a beautiful Helix. 

The little fresh-water lakes and ponds contain a great quantity of representatives of the characteristic genera 
Planorbis, Melwiia, Limnea, and that pretty little bivalve, the Gyclas. 

Of the Crustacea, the Annelida; and Eckinodermata, there is abundant representation here. The sea-urchins, 
"repkie" of the natives, are eagerly sought for at low r tide and eaten raw by them. The Arctic sea-clam, Mya 
truncata, is once in a long time found here (it is the chief food of the walrus of Alaska), and the species of Mylilus, 
the mussels, so abundant in the Aleutian archipelago, are almost absent here at St. Paul, and only sparingly 
found at St. George: 

The waters fairly swarm with an enormous number and variety of Medusa or jelly-fishes. 

The sea- weeds arc exceedingly varied and abundant here, great heaps of their assorted fronds are tossed up by 
every gale to rot upon the beaches. 

Dlmensions and contoue of the islands. — Until my arrival on the seal islands in April, 1872, no steps 
had ever been taken by any man whomsoever toward ascertaining the extent and the real importance of these 
interests of the government; the Russians never having made even an approximate survey of the laud, while our 
own people did no better. I was very much surprised, immediately after lauding, and calling for a map of the 
island of St. Paul, to have an odd sketch, traced from an old Russian chart, placed before me, that my eye stamped 
instantly as grotesque, by the land-bearings which I took out of my window on the spot. It was a matter of no 
.special concern, however, to the Russians ; had it been, doubtless they would have accurately surveyed the whole 
field. But it was and is quite different with us ; and, that no agent of the Treasury Department, or other branches 
of the government, had, up to the date of my arrival, given it the slightest thought or attention, struck me as 
rather strange. It was, as it is, and ever will be, a matter of first importance to a correct and succinct understanding of 
the subject, and it was the first thing about which I busied myself. I present, therefore, with this memoir, a careful 
chart of each island and the contiguous islets, which are the first surveys ever made upon the ground having the 
slightest pretension to accuracy.* The reader will observe, as he turns to these maps, the striking dissimilarity 
which exists between them, not only in contour but in physical structure, the island of St. Paul being the 
largest in superficial area, aud receiving a vast majority of the Pinnipedia that belong to both. As it lies in Bering 
sea to-day, this island is in its greatest length, between northeast aud southwest points, 13 miles, air blue ; and a 
little less than G at points of greatest width. It has a superficial area of about 33 square miles, or 21,120 acres, of 
diversified, rough, and rocky uplands, rugged hills, aud smooth, volcanic cones, which either set down boldly to 
the sea or fade out into extensive wet and mossy flats, passing at the sea-margins into dry, drifting, sand-dune 
tracts. It has 42 miles of shore line, and of this coast, 1G£ miles are hauled over by fur-seals en masse. At the 
time of its first upheaval above the sea, it doubtless presented the appearance of ten or twelve, small rocky, bluffy 
islets and points, upon some of which were craters that vomited breccia and cinders, with little or no lava overflowing. 
Active plutonic agency must have soon ceased after this elevation, and then the sea around about commenced the 
work which it is now engaged in : of building on to the skeleton thus created ; and it has progressed to-day so 
thoroughly and successfully in its labor of sand-shifting, together with the aid of ice-floes, in their action of grinding, 
lifting, and shoving, that nearly all of these scattered islets within the present area of the island, and marked by 
its bluffs and higher uplands, are completely bound together by ropes of sand, changed into euduring bars and 
ridges of water-worn bowlders. These are raised above the highest tides by winds that whirl the sand up, over, 
and on them, as it drives out from the wash of the surf and from the interstices of the rocks, lifted up and pushed 
by ice-fields. 

Land and scenery. — The sand which plays so important a part in the formation of the island of St. Paul, and which 
is almost entirely wanting in and around the others in this Pribylov group, is principally composed of Foraminifera, 
together with Biatomacea, mixed in with a volcanic base of fine comminuted black and reddish lavas and old friable 
gray slates. It constitutes the chief beauty of the sea-shore here, for it changes color like a chameleon, as it passes 
from wet to dry, being a rich steely-black at the surf-margiu and then drying out to a soft purplish-brown and gray, 
succeeding to tints most delicate of reddish and pale neutral, when warmed by the suu and drifting up on to the 
higher ground with the wind. The sand-dune tracts on this island are really attractive in the summer, especially 
so during those rare days when the sun comes forth — the unwonted light shimmers over them and the most 
luxuriant grass and variety of beautiful flowers, which exist in profusion thereon. In past time, as these sand 
aud bowlder bars were forming on St. Paul island, they, in making across from islet to islet, inclosed small bodies 
of sea- water. These have, by evaporation and time, by the flooding of rains and annual melting of snow, become, 
nearly every one of them, fresh; they are all, great aiid small, well shown on my map, which locates quite a large 
area of pure water. Iu them, as I have hinted, are no reptiles ; but an exquisite species of liny viviparous fish 

* These surveys hare since been confirmed and elaborated by It. W. Molntyre, of the A. C. Co., aud Lieut. Washburn Maynard, U. S. H. 



10 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES, 

exists in the lagoon-estuary near the village, au«'. eiie sjmall pure-water lakes of the natives just under the flanks of 
Telegraph hill. The Aleuts assured me that they had caught fish in the great lake toward Northeast poiut, when 
they lived in their old village out there, but I never succeeded in getting a single specimen. The waters of these 
pools and ponds are fairly alive witli vast numbers of minute Botifera, which sport about in all of them whenever 
they are examined. Many species of water-plants, pond-lilies, algae, etc., are found in the inland waters, especially 
in the large lake " Mee-sulk-mah-nee", that is very shallow. 

The backbone of the island, running directly east and west, from shore to shore, between Polavina point and 
Einahnuhto hills, constitutes the high land of the island: Polavina Sopka, an old extinct cinder-crater, 530 feet; 
Boga Slov, an upheaved mass of splinted lava, GOO feet ; and the hills frowning over the bluffs there, on the west 
shore, are also 000 feet iu elevation above the sea. But the average height of the upland between is not much over 
TOO to 150 feet above water-level, rising here and there into little hills and broad, rocky ridges, which are minutely 
sketched upon the map. From the northern base of Polavina Sopka a long stretch of low sand-flats extend, 
inclosing the great lake, and ending in a narrow neck where it unites with jSTovastoshnah, or Northeast point. Here 
the volcanic nodule known as Hutchinson's hill, with its low, gradual slopes, trending to the east and southward, 
makes a rocky foundation secure and broad, upon which the great single rookery of the island, the greatest in the 
world, undoubtedly, is located. The natives say that when they first came to these islands, Nbvastoshnah was an 
island by itself, to which they went in boats from Vesolia Mista; and the lagoon now so tightly inclosed was then an 
open harbor, in which the ships of the old Russian company rode safely at anchor. To-day no vessel drawing ten 
feet of water can get nearer than half a mile of the village, or a mile from this lagoon. 

Lack or HARBORS: Anchorages. — The total absence of a harbor at the Pribylov islands is much to be 
regretted. The village of St. Paul, as will be seen by reference to the map, is so located as to command the best 
landings for vessels that can be made during the prevalence of any and all winds, except those from the south. 
Prom these there is no shelter for ships, unless they run around to the north side, where they are unable to hold 
practicable communication with the people or to discharge. At St. George matters are still worse, for the prevailing 
northerly, westerly, and easterly winds drive the boats away from the Village roadstead, and weeks often pass at 
either island, but more frequently at the latter, ere a cargo is lauded at its destination. Under the very best 
circumstances, it is both hazardous and trying to load and unload ship at any of these places. The approach to St. 
Paul by water during thick weather, is doubtful and dangerous, for the land is mostly low at the coast, and the 
fogs hang so dense and heavy over and around the hills as to completely obliterate their presence from vision. 
The captain fairly feels his way in, by throwing his lead-line and straining his ear to catch the'muffled roar of the 
seal-rookeries, which are easily detected when once understood, high above the booming of the surf. At St. George, 
however, the bold, abrupt, bluffy coast everywhere all around, with its circling girdle of flying water-birds far out to 
sea, looms up quite prominently, even in the fog ; or, in other words; the navigator can notice it before he is hard 
aground or struggling to haul to windward from the breakers under his lee. There are' no reefs making out from 
St. George worthy of notice, but there are several very dangerous and extended ones peculiar to St. Paul, which 
Captain John G. Baker, in command of the vessel* under my direction, carefully sounded out, and which I have 
placed upon my chart for the guidance of those who may sail iu my wake hereafter. 

When the wind blows from the north, northwest, and west to southwest, the company's steamer trips her 
anchor in eight fathoms of water abreast of the Black Bluffs opposite the village, from which anchorage her stores 
arc lightered ashore; but in the northeasterly, easterly, and southeasterly winds, she hauls around to the Lagoon 
bay west of the village, and there, little less than half a mile from the landing, she drops her anchor in nine fathoms 
of water, and makes considerable headway at discharging the cargo. Sailing craft come to both anchorages, but, 
however, keep still farther out, though they choose relatively the same positions, but seek deeper water to swing- 
to their cables in: the holding-ground is excellent. At St. George the steamer comes, wind permitting, directly to 
the village on the north shore, close in, and finds her anchorage in ten fathoms of water, in poor holding- ground; 
but it is only when three or four days have passed free from northerly, westerly, or easterly winds, that she can 
make the first attempt to safely unload. The landing here is a very bad one, surf breaking most violently upon 
the rocks from one end of the year to the other. 

Otter island. — The observer will notice that six miles southward and westward of the reef of St. Paid 
island, is a bluffy islet, called by the Russians Otter island, because in olden time the Promyshleniks are said to have 
captured many thousands of sea-otters on its stony coast. It rises from the ocean, sheer and bold, an unbroken mural 
precipice extending nearly all around, of sea-front, but droppiug on its northern margin, at the water, low, and slightly 
elevated above the surf-wash, with a broken, rocky beach and no sand. The height of the cliffs, at their greatest 
elevation over the west end, is 300 feet, while the eastern extremity is quite low, and terminated by a queer, funnel- 
shaped crater-hill, which is as distinctly defined, and as plainly scorched, and devoid of the slightest sign of 
vegetation within, as though it had burned Tip and out yesterday. This crater-point on Otter island is the only 
unique feature of the place, for with the exception of that low north shore, before mentioned, where many thousand 
of " bachelor seals" haul out during the season every year, there is nothing else worthy of notice concerning it. A 

* tjfilted St4f6S wn-mte-mtiviiit chum R&liSttfiB, Jimc to OctrtBer, 1374, 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



17 




[Be 



EAST SMOKE. 

vest by compass, 3 miles distant.] 




CRATER PT. CROSS 

profile of the NORTH siiore of otter islaxd (from steamer's anchorage, Zoltoi bay, St. Paul). 
[Bearing south by compass, G miles distant.] 



bad reef makes out to the westward and northward, which I have indicated from my observation of the rocks 
awash, looking down upon them from the bluffs. Great numbers of water-fowl roost upon the cliffs, and there are 
here about as many blue foxes to the acre as the law of life allows. A small, shallow pool of impure water lies close 
down to the north shore, right 
under a low hill, upon which the 
Russians in olden time posted a 
huge Greek cross, that is still 
standing; indeed, it was their 
habit to erect crosses on all the 
hills in those olden times ; one of 
them is standing at Northeast point, on the large sand-dune which I have called St. John or Cross hill ; and another 
one, a sound, stalwart stick, yet faces the gale and driving " boorgas " to-day on Boga Slov, as it has faced them for 
the last sixty years. 
Otter island has, 
since my return in 
1872, had considera- 
ble attention in the 
Treasury Depart- 
ment, owing to the 
fact that certain par- 
ties contended that it lies without the jurisdiction of the law which covers and protects the seal life on the Pribylov 
islands. This survey of mine, however, settles that question: the island is within the pale of law. It is a rock 
adjacent to and in the waters of St. Paul, and resorted to only by those seals which are born upon and belong to 
the breeding-grounds of St. Paul and St. George, and I have never seen at any one time more than three or four 
thousand "kolluschickie" hauled out here. 

Walkus island. — To the eastward, six miles from Northeast point, will be noticed a small rock named Walrus 
island. It is a mere ledge of lava, flat-capped, lifted just above the wash of angry waves ; indeed, in storms of 
great power, the observer, standing on either Cross or Hutchinson's hills, with a field-glass, can see the water 
breaking clear over it. These storms, however, occur late in the season, usually in October or November. This 
island has little or no commercial importance, being scarcely more than a quarter of a mile in length ami 100 yards 
in point of greatest width, with bold water all around, entirely free from reefs or sunken rocks. As might be 
expected, there is no fresh water on it. In a fog it makes an ugly neighbor for the sea-captains when they are 
searching for St. Paul; they all know it, and they all dread it. It is not resorted to by the fur-seals or by sea-lions in 
particular ; but, singularly enough, it is frequented by several hundred male walrus, to the exclusion of females, 
every summer. A few sea-lions, but only a very few, however, .breed here. On account of the rough weather, fogs, 
etc., this little islet is s ldom visited by the natives of St. Paul, and then only in the egging season of late June 
and early July; then that surf- beaten rock literally swarms with breeding water-fowl. 

This low, tiny, rocky islet is, perhaps, the most interesting single spot now known to the naturalist, who may 
land in northern seas, to study the habits of bird-life ; for here, without exertion or risk, he can observe and walk 
among tens upon tens of thousands of screaming water-fowl, and as he sits down upon the polished lava rock, he 
becomes literally ignored and environed by these feathered friends, as they reassume their varied positions of 
incubation, which he disturbs them from by his arrival. Generation after generation of their kind have resorted 
to this rock unmolested, and to-day, when yon get among them, all doubt and distrust seems to have been eliminated 
from their natures. The island itself is rather unusual in those formations which we find peculiar to Alaskan 
■waters. It is almost flat, with slight, irregular undulations on top,' spreading over an area of five acres, perhaps. 
It rises abruptly, though low, from the sea, and it has no safe beach upon which a person can land from a boat ; 
not a stick of timber or twig of shrubbery ever grew upon it, though the scant presence of low, crawling grasses in 
the central portions prevents the statement that all vegetation is absent. Were it not for the frequent rains and 
dissolving fog, characteristic of summer weather here, the guano accumulation would be something wonderful to 
contemplate — Peru would have a rival. As it is, however, the birds, when they return, year after year, find their 
nesting-floor swept as clean as though they had never sojourned there before. The scene of confusion and uproar 
that presented itself to my astonished senses when I approached this place in search of eggs, one threatening, 
foggy July morning, may be better imagined than described, for as the clumsy bidarrah came under the lee of the 
low cliffs, swarm upon swarm of thousands of murres or "aries" dropped in fright from their nesting-shelves, and 
before they had control of then- flight, they struck to the right and left of me, like so many cannon balls. I was forced, 
in self-protection, to instantly crouch for a few moments under the gunwale of the boat until the struggling, startled 
flock passed, like an irresistible, surging wave, over my head. Words cannot depict the amazement and 
curiosity with which I gazed around, after climbing up to the rocky plateau and standing among myriads of 
breeding-birds, that fairly covered the entire surface of the island with their shrinking forms, while others whirled 
in rapid flight over my head, as wheels within wheels, so thickly inter-running that the blue and gray of the sky 



18 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

was bidden from my view. Add to tbis impression tbe stuuning wbir of hundreds of thousands of strong, beating 
wiims, tbe shrill screams of tbe gulls, and the muffled croaking of tbe "aries", coupled with an indescribable, 
disagreeable smell which arose from the broken eggs and other decaying substances, and a faint idea maybe 
evoked of the strange reality spread before me. Were it not for this island and the ease with which tbe natives 
can rather, in a few hours, tons upon tons of sea-fowl eggs, the people of the village would be obliged to go to the 
westward, and suspend themselves from tbe lofty cliffs of Eiuabnuhto, dangling over tbe sea by ropes, as their 
neighbors are only too glad and willing to do at St. George. 

St. Paul. — A glance at the map of St. Paul, shows that nearly half of its superficial area is low and quite flat, 
not much elevated above the sea. Wherever the sand-dune tracts are located, and that is right along the coast, is 
found an irregular succession of hummocks and hillocks, drifted by the wind, which are very characteristic. On the 
summits of these hillocks the Etym us has taken root in times past, and, as the sand drifts up, it keeps growiug on and 
up so that the quaint spectacle is presented of large stretches to the view, wherein sand-dunes, entirely bare of all 
vegetation at their base and on their sides, are crowned with a living cap of the brightest green — a tuft of long, 
waving grass blades which will not down. None of this peculiar landscaping, however, is seen on St. George, not 
even in the faintest degree. Travel about St. Paul, with the exception of the road to Northeast point, where tbe 
natives take advantage of low water to run on tbe hard, wet sand, is exceedingly difficult, and there are examples 
of only a few white men who have ever taken tbe trouble and expended tbe physical energy necessary to accomplish 
the comparatively short walk from the village to Nahsayvernia, or the north shore. Walking over the moss-hidden 
and slippery rocks, or tumbling over slightly uncertain tussocks, is a task and not a pleasure. On St. George, 
with the exception of a half-mile path to tbe village cemetery and back, nobody pretends to walk, except the natives 
who go to and from the rookeries in their regular seal-drives. Indeed, I am told that I am the only white man 
who has ever traversed the entire coastline of both islands. (See note, 39, E.) 

St. Geokge. — Turning to St. George and its profile, presented by the accompanying map, the observer will be 
struck at once by tbe solidity of that little island and its great boldness, rising, as it does, sheer and precipitous 
from the sea all arouud, except at the three short reaches of the coast indicated on the chart, and where the only 
chance to come ashore exists. 

The seals naturally have no such opportunity to gain a footing here as they bave on St. Paul, hence their 
comparative insignificance as to number. The island itself is a trifle over ten miles in extreme length, east and west, 
and about four and a quarter miles in greatest width, north and south. It looks, when plotted, somewhat like an 
old stone ax; and, indeed, when I had finished my first contours from my field-notes, the ancient stone-ax outline 
so disturbed me that I felt obliged to resurvey the southern shore, in order that I might satisfy my own mind as to 
the accuracy of my first work. It consists of two great plateaus, with a high upland valley between, the western 
table-land dropping abruptly to tbe sea at Dalnoi Mees, while the eastern falls as precipitately at Waterfall Head and 
Tolstoi Mees. There are several little reservoirs of fresh water — I can scarcely call them lakes — on this island ; 
pools, rather, that the wet sphagnum seems to always keep full, and from which drinking-water in abundance is 
everywhere found. At Garden cove a small stream, the only one on the Pribylov group, empties into the sea. 

St. George has an area of about 27 square miles ; it bas 29 miles of coast-line, of which only two and a quarter 
are visited by tbe fur-seals, and which is in fact all the eligible landing-ground afforded them by the structure of 
the island. Nearly half of the sbore of St. Paul is a sandy beach, while on St. George there is less than a mile of 
it all put together, namely, a few hundred yards in front of tbe village, the same extent on the Garden cove beach 
southeast side, and less than half a mile at Zapadnie on the south side. 

Just above tbe Garden cove, under the overhanging bluffs, several thousand sea-lions bold exclusive, though shy, 
possession. Here there is a half mile of good landing. On the north shore of the island, three miles west from the 
village, a grand bluff wall, of basalt and tufa intercalated, rises abruptly from the sea to a sheer height of 920 feet 
at its reach of greatest elevation, thence, dropping a little, runs clear around the island to Zapadnie, a distance of 
nearly 10 miles, without affording a single passage-way up or down to the sea that thunders at its base. Upon its 
innumerable narrow shelf-margins, and in its countless chinks and crannies, and back therefrom over the extended 
area of lava-shingled inland ridges and terraces, millions upon millions of water-fowl breed during the summer 
months. 

The general altitude of St. George, though in itself not great, bas, however, an average three times higher 
than that of St. Paul, the elevation of which is quite low, and slopes gently down to the sea east and north; 
St. George rises abruptly, witb exceptional spots for landing. Tbe loftiest summit on St. George, tbe top of the hill 
right back to tbe southward of tbe village, is 930 feet, and is called by the natives Ahluckeyak. That on St. Paul, as 
I bave before said, is Boga Slov hill, 000 feet. All elevations on either island, 15 or 20 feet above sea-level, are rough 
and hummocky, with the exception of the sand-dune tracts at St. Paul and the summits of tbe cinder bills, on both 
islands. AVeatbered out or washed from the basalt and pockets of olivine on either island are aggregates of augite, 
seen most abundant on the summit slopes of Ahluckeyak hill, St. George. Specimens from the stratified bands of 
old, friable, gray lavas, so conspicuous on the sbore of this latter island, show the existence of hornblende and 
vitreous feldspar in considerable quantity, while on the south sbore, near the Garden cove, is a large dike of a bluish 
and greenish gray phonolitb, in which numerous small crystals of spinel are found. A dike, with well-defined 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 19 

walls of old, close-grained, clay-colored lava, is near the village of St. George, about a quarter of a mile east from the 
landing, in the face of those reddish breccia bluffs that rise from the sea. It is the only example of the kind on the 
islands. Tbe bases or foundations of the Pribylov islands are, all of them, basaltic; some are compact and grayish- 
white, but most of them exceedingly porous and ferruginous. Upon this solid floor are many hills of brown and 
red tufa, cinder-heaps, etc. Polavina Sopka, the second point in elevation on St. Paul island, is almost entirely 
built up of red scoria and breccia; so is Ahluckeyak hill, on St. George, and the cap to the high bluffs opposite. 
The village hill at St. Paul, Cone hill, the Eiuahuuhto peaks, Crater hill, Forth hill, and Little Polavina are all 
ash-heaps of this character. The bluffs at the shore of Polavina point, St. Paul, show in a striking manner a 
section of the geological structure of the island. The tufas on both islands, at the surface, decompose and weather 
into the base of good soil, which the severe climate, however, renders useless to the husbandman. There is not a 
trace of a granitic or a gueissic rock found in situ. Metamorphic bowlders have been collected along the beaches 
and pushed up by the ice-floes which have brought them down from the Siberian coast away to the northwest. 
The dark-brown tufa bluffs and the breccia walls at the east landing of St. Paul island, known as "Black bluffs", 
rise suddenly from the sea 00 to SO feet, with stratified horizontal lines of light-gray calcareous conglomerate, or 
cement, in which are imbedded sundry fossils characteristic of and belonging to the Tertiary age, such as Cardium 
grcenlandicum, G. decoratum, and Astarte pectunculata, etc. This is the only locality within the purview of the 
Pribylov islands where any palcontological evidence of their age can be found. These specimens, as indicated, are 
exceedingly abundant; I brought down a whole series, gathered there at the east landing or "Navastock", in a 
short half-hour's search and labor. 

AVriY these islands AEE FREQUENTED by fur-seals. — The fact that the fur-seals frequent these islands and 
those of Bering and Copper, on the Russian side, to the exclusion of other laud, seems at first a little singular, to 
say the least; but when we come to examine the subject we find that these animals, when they repair hither to rest 
for two or three months on the laud, as they must do by their habit during the breeding-season, they require a cool, 
moist atmosphere, imperatively coupled with firm, well-diained land, or dry, broken rocks, or shingle rather, upon 
which to take their positions and remain undisturbed by the weather and the sea for the lengthy period of repro- 
duction. If the rookery-ground is hard and flat, with an admixture of loam or soil, puddles are speedily formed 
in this climate, where it rains almost every day, and when not raining, rain-fogs take quick succession and continue 
the saturation, making thus a muddy slime, which very quickly takes the hair off the animals whenever it plasters 
or wherever it fastens on them; hence, they carefully avoid any such landing. If they occupy a sandy shore the 
rain beats that material into their large, sensitive eyes, and into their fur, so they are obliged, from simple irrita- 
tion, to leave and hunt the sea for relief. 

The seal-islands now under discussion offer to the Pinnijpedia very remarkable advantages for landing, 
especially St. Paid, where the ground of basaltic rock and of volcanic tufa or cement slopes up from so many points 
gradually above the sea, making thereby a perfectly adapted resting-place for any number, from a thousand to 
millions, of those intelligent animals, which can lie out here from May until October every year in perfect physical 
peace and security. There is not a rod of ground of this character offered to these animals elsewhere in all Alaska, 
not on the Aleutian chain, not on the mainland, not on St. Matthew or St. Lawrence. Both of the latter islands were 
surveyed by myself, with special reference to this query, in 1874 ; every foot' of St. Matthew shore-line was 
examined, and I know that the fur-seal could not rest on the low clayey lava flats there in contentment a single 
day; hence he never has rested there, nor will he in the future. As to St. Lawrence, it is so ice-bound and snow- 
covered in spring and early summer, to say nothing of numerous other physical disadvantages, that it never becomes 
of the slightest interest to the seals. 



D. THE OCCUPANTS OF THE ISLANDS. 

5. THE NATIVES OF THE ISLANDS. 

Colonization by Russians and Aleuts: Early history. — When Pribylov, in taking possession, landed on 
St. George a part of his little ship's crew, July, 17SG, he knew that, as it was uninhabited, it would be necessary 
to create a colony there, from which to draft laborers to do the killing, skinning, and curing of the peltries; there- 
fore he and his associates, and his rivals after him, imported natives of Oonalashka and Atkha — passive, docile 
Aleuts. They founded their first village a quarter of a mile to the eastward of one of the principal rookeries 
on St. George, now called "Starry Ateel'", or "Old settlement"; a village was also located at Zapadnie, and a suc- 
cession of barrabaras planted at Garden cove. Then, during the following season, more men were brought up from 
Atkha and taken over to St. Paul, where five or six rival traders posted themselves on the north shore, near and 
at " Maroonitch ", and at the head of the Big lake, among the sand dunes there. They were then as they are now, 
somewhat given to riotous living, if they only had the chance, and the ruins of the Big lake settlement are pleasantly 
remembered by the descendants of those pioneers to-day, on St. Paul, who take off their hats as they pass by, to 



20 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

affectionately salute, and call the place " Yesolia Mista", or "Jolly Spot" ; the old men telling me, in a low whisper, 
that "in those good old days they had plenty of rum". But, wheu the pressure of competition became great, auother 
village was located at Polavina, aud still auother at Zapaduie, until the activity and unscrupulous energy of all these 
rival settlements well-nigh drove out aud eliminated the seals in 179C. Three years later the whole territory of 
Alaska passed into the hands of the absolute power vested iu the Russian- American Company. These islands were 
in the bill of sale, and early in 1799 the competing traders were turned off neck and heels from them, and the Pribylov 
group passed under the control of a single man, the iron- willed Baranov. The people on St. Paul were then all drawn 
together, for economy and warmth, into a single settlement at Polavina. Their life in those days must have been 
miserable. They were mere slaves, without the slightest redress from any insolence or injury which their masters 
might see fit, in petulance or brutal orgies, to inflict upon them. Here they lived and died, unnoticed and uncared 
for, in large barracoons half under ground and dirt roofed, cold, and filthy. Along toward the beginning or end of 
1825, iu order that they might reap the advantage of being located best to load and uuload ships, the Polavina 
settlement was removed to the present village site, as indicated on the map, and the natives have lived there ever 
since. 

On St. George the several scattered villages were abandoned, and consolidated at the existing location some 
years later, but for a different reason. The labor of bringing the seal-skins over to Garden cove, which is the best 
and surest landing, was so great, and that of carrying them from the north shore to Zapaduie still greater, that it was 
decided to place the consolidated settlement at such a point between them, on the north shore, that the least trouble 
and exertion of conveyance would be necessary. A better place, geographically, for the business of gathering the 
skins and salting them down at St. George cannot be found on the island, but a poorer place for a landiug it is 
difficult to pick out, though iu this respect there is not much choice outside of Garden cove. 

Contrast in the condition op the inhabitants under Russian and American rule. — Up to 
the time of the transfer of the territory and leasing of the islands to the Alaska Commercial Company, in August, 
1870, these native inhabitants all lived in huts or sod-walled and dirt-roofed houses, called " barrabkies," partly 
under ground. Most of these huts were damp, dark, aud exceedingly filthy : it seemed to be the policy of the 
short-sighted Russian management to keep them so, and to treat the natives not near so well as they treated the few 
hogs and dogs which they brought up there for food and for company. The use of seal-fat for fuel, caused the 
deposit upon everything within doors of a thick coat of greasy, black soot, strongly impregnated with a damp, 
moldy, and indescribably offensive odor. They found along the north shore of St. Paul and at Northeast point, 
occasional scattered pieces of drift-wood, which they used, carefully soaked anew in water if it had dried out, split 
into little fragments, and, trussing the blubber with it when making their fires, the combination gave rise to a 
roaring, spluttering blaze. If this drift-wood failed them at any time when winter came round, they were obliged 
to huddle together beneath skins in their cold huts, and live or die, as the case might be. But the situation to-day 
has changed marvelously. We see here now at St. Paul, and on St. George, m the place of the squalid, filthy 
habitations of the immediate past,- two villages neat, warm, and contented. Each family lives in a snug frame- 
dwelling; every house is lined with tarred paper, painted, furnished with a stove, with out-houses, etc., complete; 
streets laid out, and the foundations of these habitatious regularly plotted thereon. There is a large church at St. 
Paul, and a less pretentious but very creditable structure of the same character, on St. George; a hospital on St. 
Paul, with a full and complete stock of drugs, and skilled physicians on both islands to take care of the people, 
free of cost. There is a school-house on each island, in which teachers are also paid by the company eight mouths 
in the year, to instruct the youth, while the Russian Church is sustained entirely by the pious contributions of the 
natives themselves on these two islands, and sustained well by each other. There are SO families, or 80 houses, on 
St. Paul, in the village, with 20 or 21 such houses to as many families at St. George, and 8 other structures. The 
large ware-houses and salt-sheds of the Alaska Commercial Company, built by skillful mechanics, as have been the 
dwellings just referred to, are also neatly painted; and, taken in combination with the other features, constitute a 
picture fully equal to the average presentation of any one of our small eastern towns. There is no misery, no 
downcast, dejected, suffering humanity here to-day. These Aleuts, who enjoy as the price of their good behaviour, 
the sole right to take and skin seals for the company, to the exclusion. of all other people, are known to and by 
their less fortunate neighbors elsewhere in Alaska as the " Bogatskie Aloutov ", or the " rich Aleuts". The example 
of the agents of the Alaska Commercial Company, on both islands, from the beginning of its lease, and the course 
of the treasury agents* during the. last four or five years, have been silent but powerful promoters of the welfare 
of these people. They have maintained perfect order : they have directed neatness, and cleanliness, and stimulated 
industry, such as those natives had never before dreamed of. 

Number and condition op the islanders in 1S80. — The population of St. Paul is, at the present writing, 
298. Of these, 14 are whites (13 males and 1 female), 128 male Aleutians, and 150 females. On St. George we 
have 92 souls : 1 white males, 35 male Aleutians, and 53 females, a total population on these islands of 390. This 
is an increase of between 30 and 10 people siuce 1S73. Prior to 1S73, they had neither much increased nor 
diminished for 50 years, but would have fallen off rapidly (for the births were never equal to the deaths) had not 

* Messrs. Morton, Falconer, Otis, Moultou, Scribner, aud Beaman. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 21 

recruits been regularly drawn from the mainland and other islands every season when the ships came up. As they 
lived then, it was a physical impossibility for them to increase and multiply; but, since their elevation and their 
sanitary advancement are so marked, it may be reasonably expected that those people for all time to come will at least 
hold their own, even though they do not increase to any remarkable degree. Perhaps it is better that they should 
not. But it is exceedingly fortunate that they do sustain themselves so as to be, as it were, a prosperous corporate 
factor, entitled to the exclusive privilege of labor on these islands. As an encouragement for their good behavior 
the Alaska Commercial Company, in pursuance of its enlightened treatment of the whole subject, so handsomely 
exhibited by its housing of these people, has assured them that so long as they are capable and willing to perform 
the labor of skinning the seal-catch every year, SO long will they enjoy the sole privilege of participating in that 
toil and its reward. This is wise on the part of the company, and it is exceedingly happy for the people. They 
are, of all men, especially fitted for the work connected with the seal-business — no comment is needed — nothing 
better in the way of manual labor, skilled and rapid, could be rendered by any body of men, equal in numbers, 
living under the same circumstances, all the year round. They appear to shake off the periodic lethargy of winter 
and its forced inanition, to rush with the coming of summer into the severe exercise and duty of capturing, killing, 
and skinning the seals, with vigor and with persistent and commendable energy. 

To day only a very small proportion of the population are descendants of the pioneers who were brought here 
by the several Russian companies, in 17S7 and 17S8 ; a colony of 137 souls, it is claimed, principally recruited at 
Oonalashka and Atfcba. I have placed in the appendix, together with other scattered notes, a list of these people 
who were living on St. Paul island in August, 1873; also showing aL the same time those who were living there in 
1870. It is a simple record, perhaps of no interest to anybody except those who are intimately associated with the 
islands. (See note, 3!>, P.) 

Origin and traits of tiie Alettts. — The question as to the derivation of these natives is still a mooted one 
among ethnologists, for in all points of personal bearing, intelligence, character, as well as physical structure, they 
scon to form a perfect link of gradation between the Japanese and Eskimos, although their traditions and their 
language are entirely distinct and peculiar to themselves ; not one word or numeral of their nomenclature resembles 
the dialect of either. They claim, however, to have come first to the Aleutian islands from a "big land to the 
westward", and that when they came there first they found the land uninhabited, and that they did not meet with 
any people, until their ancestors had pushed on to the eastward as far as the peninsula and Kadiak. Confirmatory 
of this legend, or rather highly suggestive of it, is the fact that repeated instances have occurred within our day 
where Japanese junks have been, in the stress of hurricanes and typhoons, dismantled, and have drifted clear over 
and on to the reefs and coasts of the Aleutian islands. Only a short time ago, in the summer of 1871, such a craft 
was so stranded, helpless and at the mercy of the sea, upon the rocky coast of Adak island, in this chain ; the few 
surviving sailors, Japanese, five in number, were, I remember, rescued by a party of Aleutian sea-otter hunters, 
who took care of them until the vessel of a trader carried them back, by way of Oonalashka, to San Francisco, and 
from thence they returned to their native land. 

The Aleuts on the islands, as they appear to-day, have been so mixed up with Russian, Koloshian, and 
Kamschadale blood, that they present characteristics, in one way or another, of all the various races of men, from 
the negro up to the Caucasian. The predominant features among them are small, wide-set eyes, broad and high 
cheek-bones, causing the jaw, which is full and square, to often appear peaked ; coarse, straight, black hair, small, 
neatly-shaped feet and hands, together with brownish-yellow complexion. The men will average in stature five 
feet four or five inches; the women less in proportion, although there are exceptions to this rule among them, 
some being over six feet in height, and others are decided dwarfs. The manners and customs of these people to-day 
possess nothing in themselves of a barbarous or remarkable character, aside from that which belongs to an advauced 
state of semi-civilization. They are exceedingly polite and civil, not only in their business with the agents of the 
company on the seal-islands, but among themselves ; and they visit, the one with the other, freely and pleasantly, 
the women being great gossips. .But, on the whole, their intercourse is subdued, for the simple reason that the 
topics of conversation are few, and, judging from their silent but unconstrained meetings, they seem to have a 
mutual knowledge, as if by sympathy, as to what may be occupying each other's minds, rendering speech superfluous. 
It is only when under the influence of beer or strong liquor, that they lose their naturally quiet and amiable 
disposition ; they then relapse into low, drunken orgies and loud, brawling noises. Having been so long under the 
control and influence of the Russians, they have adopted many Sclavic customs, such as giving birthday-dinners, 
naming their children, etc.; they are remarkably attached to their church, and no other form of religion could be 
better adapted or have a firmer hold upon the sensibilities of the people. Their inherent chastity and sobriety 
cannot be commended. They have long since thrown away the uncouth garments of the Russian rule — the shaggy 
dog skin caps, with coats half seal and half sea-lion — for a complete outfit, cap-a-pie, such as our own people buy in 
any furnishing house; the same boots, socks, underclothing, and clothing, with ulsters and ulstere.ttes ; but the 
violence of the wind prevents their selecting the hats of our haut ton and sporting fraternity. As for the women, they 
too have kept pace and even advanced to the level of the men, for in these lower races there is much more vanity 
displayed by the masculine element than the feminine, according to my observation; in other words, I have noticed 



22 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

a greater desire among the young men than among the young women of savage and semi civilized people to he 
gaily dressed, and to look flue. But the visits of the wives of our treasury officials and the company's agents to 
these islands, during the last ten years, bringing with them a full outfit, as ladies always do, of everything under 
the sun that women want to wear, has given the native female mind an undue expansion up there, anu stimulated 
it to unwonted activity. They watch the cut of the garments, and borrow the patterns; and some of them are 
very expert dress-makers to day. When the Russians controlled affairs the women were the hewers of the drift-wood 
and the drawers of the water. At St, Paul there was no well of drinking-fluid about the village, nor within 
half a mile of the village ; there was no drinking-water unless it was caught in cisterns, and the cistern-water, 
owing to the particles of seal-fat soot which fall upon the roofs of the houses, is rendered undrinkable; so that the 
supply for the town, until quite recently, used to be carried by the women from two little lakes at the head of the 
lagoon, a mile and a half, as the crow flies, from the village, and right under Telegraph hill. This is quite a journey, 
and when it is remembered that they drink so much tea, and that water has to go with it, some idea of the labor 
of the old and young females can be derived from an inspection of the map. Latterly, within the last four or five 
years, the company have opened a spring less than half a mile from the " gorode ", which they have plumbed and 
regulated, so that it supplies them with "water now, and renders the labor next to nothing, compared with the 
former difficulty. But to day, when water is wanted in the Aleutian houses at St. Paul, the man has to get it, the 
woman does not ; he trudges out with a little wooden firkin or tub on his back, and brings it to the house. 

Some of the natives save their money ; but there are very few among them, perhaps not more than a dozen, 
who have the slightest economical tendency.- What they cannot spend for luxuries, groceries, and tobacco, they 
manage to get away with at the gaming-table. They have their misers and their spendthrifts, and they have the 
usual small proportion who know how to make money and then how to spend it. A few among them who are in 
the habit of saving, have opened a regular bank-account with the company; some of them have to-day two or three 
thousand dollars saved, drawing an interest of 9 per cent. 

When the ships arrive and go, the great and necessary labor of lightering their cargoes off and on from the 
roadsteads where they anchor, is principally performed by these people, and they are paid so much a day for their 
labor, from 50 cents to $1, according to the character of the service they render; this operation, however, is 
much dreaded by the ship-captains and sea-going men, whose habits of discipline and automatic regularity and 
effect of working render them severe critics and impatient coadjutors of the natives, who, to tell the truth, hate to 
do anything after they have pocketed their reward for sealing; and when they do labor after this, they regard it as 
an act of very great condescension on their part. 

As they are living to-day up there, there is no restraint, such as the presence of policemen, courts of justice, 
fines, etc., which we employ for the suppression of disorder and maintenance of the law in our own land. They 
understand that if it is necessary to make them law-abiding, and to punish crime, that such officers will be among 
them; and hence, perhaps, is due the fact that, from the time that the Alaska Commercial Company has taken 
charge, in 1870, there has not been one single occasion where the simplest functions of a justice of the peace would 
or could have been called in to settle any difficulty. This speaks eloquently for their docile nature and their amiable 
disposition. 

Food.— Seal-meat is their staple food, and in the village of St. Paul they consume on an average fully 500 
pounds a day the year round ; and they are, by the permission of the Secretary of the Treasury, allowed every fall 
to kill 5,000 or 6,000 seal-pups, or an average of 22 to 30 young "kotickie" for each man, woman, and child in the 
settlements. The pups will dress 10 pounds each. This shows an average consumption of nearly 600 pounds of 
seal- meat by each person, large and small, during the year. To this diet the natives add a great deal of butter and 
many sweet crackers. They are passionately fond of butter— no epicure at home, or butter-taster in Goshen, knows 
or appreciates that article better than these people do. If they could get all that they desire, they would consume 
1,000 pounds of butter and 500 pounds of sweet crackers every week, and indefinite quantities of sugar— the 
sweetest of all sweet teeth are found in the jaw of the average Aleut. But it is pf course unwise to allow them full 
swing in this matter, for they would turn their stomachs into fermenting tanks if they had full access to an 
unlimited supply of saccharine food. The company allows them 200 pounds a week. If unable to get sweet 
crackers they will eat about 300 pounds of hard or pilot bread every week, and in addition to this nearly 700 
pounds of flour at the same time. Of tobacco they are allowed 50 pounds per week ; candles, 75 pounds ; rice, 50 
pounds. They burn, strange as it may seem, kerosene oil here to the exclusion of the seal-fat, which literally 
overruns the island. They ignite and consume over 600 gallons of kerosene oil a year in the village of St. Paul 
alone. They do not fancy vinegar very much — perhaps 50 gallons a year is used up there. Mustard and pepper 
are sparingly used, one to one and a half pounds a week for the whole village ; beans they peremptorily reject— for 
some reason or other they cannot be induced to use them. Those who go about the vessels contract a taste for 
split-pea soup, and a few of them are sold in the village-store. Salt meat, beef or pork, they will take reluctantly, 
if it is given to and pressed upon them, but they will never buy it. I remember, in this connection, seeing two 
barrels of prime salt pork and a barrel of prime mess salt beef opened in the company's store, shortly after my 
arrival in 1872, and, though the people of the village were invited to help themselves, I think I am right in saying 




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THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 23 

that tbe barrels were not emptied when I left the island in 1873. They use a very little coffee during the year — 
not more than 100 pounds — but of tea a great deal. I do not know exactly — I cannot find among my notes a. 
record as to this article — but I can say, that they do not drink less than a gallon of tea apiece per diem. The 
amount of this beverage which they sip, from the time they rise in the morning until they go to bed late at niglit, is 
astounding. Their "samovars", and, latterly, the regular tea-kettles of our American make, are bubbling and 
boiling from the moment the housewife stirs herself at daybreak until the fire goes out when they sleep. It should 
be stated in this connection, that they are supplied with a regular allowance of coal every year by the company, 
gratis, each family being entitled to a certain amount, which alone, if economically used, keeps them warm all 
winter in their new houses ; but, for those who are extravagant and are itching to spend their extra wages, an extra 
supply is always kept in the storehouses of the compauy for sale. Their appreciation of and desire to possess all 
the canned fruit that is landed from the steamer, is marked to a great degree. If they had the opportunity, I 
doubt whether a single family on that island today would hesitate to bankrupt itself in purchasing this commodity. 
Potatoes they sometimes demand, as well as onious, and perhaps if these vegetables could be brought here and 
kept to an advantage, tbe people would soon become very fond of them. (See note, 39, G.) 

Occupation. — The question is naturally asked: How do these people employ themselves during the long 
nine mouths of every year after the close of the sealing season and until it begius again, when they have little or 
absolutely nothing to do ? It may be answered, that they simply vegetate ; or, in other words, are entirely idle, 
mentally and physically, during most of this period. But to their credit, let it be said, that mischief does not 
employ their idle hands ; they are passive killers of time, drinking tea and sleeping, with a few disagreeable 
exceptions, such as the gamblers. There are a half-dozen of these characters at St. Paul, and perhaps as many at 
St. George, who pass whole nights at their sittings, even during the sealing season, playing games of cards, taught 
by Russians and persons who have been on the island since the transfer of the territory; but the majority of the 
men, women, and children, not being compelled to exert themselves to obtain any of the chief, or even the least, of 
the necessaries of life, such as tea and hard bread, sleep the greater portion of the time, when not busy in eating, 
and in the daily observances of the routine belonging to the Greek Catholic church. The teachings, pomp, and 
circumstance of the religious observances of this faith alone preserve these people from absolute stagnation. In 
obedience to its teachings they gladly attend church very regularly. They also make and receive calls on their 
saints' days, and these days are very numerous. I think some 290 of the whole year's calendar must be given up 
to the ceremonies attendant upon the celebration of some holy man's or woman's birth or death. 

In early times the same disgraceful beer-drinking orgies which prevailed to so great an extent, and still cause so 
much misery and confusion seen elsewhere in the territory, prevailed here, and I remember very well the difficulty 
which I had iu initiating the first steps taken by the Treasury Department to suppress this abominable nuisance. 
During the last four or five years, it gives me pleasure to say, since the new order of things was inaugurated, the 
present agents of the department have faithfully executed the law. 

The natives add to these entertainments of their saints' clay and birth festivals, or "Emannimiks", the music 
of accordeons and violins; upon the former and its variation, the concertina, they play a number of airs, and are 
very fond of the noise. A great many of the women, in particular, can render indifferently a limited selection of 
tunes, many of which are the old battle-songs, so popular during the Pebellion, woven into weird Russian waltzes 
and love ditties, which they have jointly gathered from their former masters and our soldiers, who were quartered 
here in 1S69. From the Russians and the troops, also, they have learned to dance various figures, and have 
been taught to waltz. These dances, however, the old folks do not enjoy very much. They will come in and sit 
around and look at the young performers with stolid indifference; but, if they manage to get a strong current of 
tea setting in their direction, nicely sugared and toned up, they revive and join in the mirth. In old times they 
never danced here unless they were drunk, and it was the principal occupation of the amiable and mischievous 
treasury agents, and others, in the early days to open up this beery fun. Happily, that nuisance is abated. 

As an illustration of their working ability on the seal-grounds, I offer the following table, which shows the 
actual time occupied by them in finishing up the three seasons' work which I personally supervised: 

On St. Paul island: 

In 1S72, 50 days' work of 71 men secured 75,000 seal-skins. 

In 1873, 40 days' work of 71 men secured 75,000 seal-skins. 

in 1874, 39 days' work of 84 men secured 90,000 sealskins. 

This exhibit plainly presents the increased ability and consequent celerity of action among the natives, and 
furnishes also at the same time abundant proof of the statement which I make, of the full and undiminished supply 
of killable seals, or "holluschickie", from year to year. 

The influence of the Alaska Cotuviercial Company. — Before leaving the consideration of these people, 
who are so intimately associated with and blended into the business on these islands, it may be well to clearly define 
the relation existing between them, the government, and the company leasing the islands. When Congress granted 
to the Alaska Commercial Company of San Francisco the exclusive right of taking a certain number of fur-seals 
every year, for a period of twenty years on these islands, it did so with several reservations and conditions, which were 



24 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

confided in their detail to the Secretary of the Treasury. This officer and the president of the Alaska Commercial 
Company agreed upon a code of regulations which should govern their joint action in regard to the natives. It was 
a simple agreement that these people should have a certain amount of dried salmon furnished tbem for food every 
year, a certain amount of fuel, a school-house, and the right to go to and come from the islands as they chose; and 
also the right to work or not, understanding that in case they did not work, their places would and could be 
supplied by other people who would work. 

The company, however, has gone far beyond this exaction of the government; it has added the inexpressible 
boon of comfort, in the formation of the dwellings now occupied by the natives, which was not expressed nor 
thought of at the time of the granting of the lease. An enlightened business-policy suggested to the company, that 
it would be much better for the natives, and much better for the company too, if these people were taken out of 
their filthy, unwholesome hovels, put into habitable dwellings, and taught to live .cleanly, for the simple reason 
that by so doiug the natives, living in this improved condition, would be able physically and mentally, every season 
when the sealing work began, to come out from their long inanition and go to work at once with vigor and energetic 
persistency. The sequel has proved the wisdom of the company. 

Before this action on their part, it was physically impossible for the inhabitants of St. Paul or St. George islands 
to take the lawful quota of 100,000 seal-skins annually in less than three or four working months. They take 
them in less than thirty working days now with the same number of men. What is the gain? Simply this, aud it 
is everything: The fur-seal skin, from the 14th of June, when it first arrives, as a rule, up to the 1st of August, is iD 
prime condition; from that latter date until the middle of October it is rapidly deteriorating, to slowly appreciate 
again in value as it sheds and renews its coat; so much so that it is practically worthless in the markets of the 
world. Hence, the catch taken by the Alaska Commercial Company every year is a prime one, first to last — there 
are no low-grade "stagey" skins in it; but under the old regimen, three-fourths of the skins were taken in August, 
iu September, and even in October, and were not worth their transportation to London. Comment on this is 
unnecessary ; it is the contrast made between a prescient business-policy, and one that was as shiftless and 
improvident as language can well devise. 

Schools and churches. — The company found so much difficulty iu getting the youth of the villages to 
attend their schools, taught by our own people, especially brought up there and hired by the company, that thej' 
have adopted the plan of bringing one or two of the brightest boys down every year and putting them into our 
schools, so that they may grow up here and be educated, in order to return and serve as teachers there. This policy 
is warranted by the success attending the experiment made at the time when I was up there first, whereby a son of the 
chief was carried down and over to Rutland, Vermont, for his education, remained there four years, then returned and 
took charge of the school on St. Paul, which he has had ever since, with the happiest results in increased attendance 
and atteution from the children. But, of course, so long as the Russian church service is conducted in the Russian 
language, we will find on the islands more Russian-speaking people than our own. The non-attendance at school 
was not and is not to be ascribed to indisposition on the part of the children and parents. One of the oldest and 
most intelligent of the natives told me, explanatory of their feeling and consequent action, that he did not, nor did 
his neighbors, have any objection to the attendance of their children on our English school; but, if their boys and 
young men neglected their Russian lessons, they knew not who were going to take their places, when they died, in 
his church, at the christenings, and at their burial? To any one familiar with the teachiugs of the Greek-Catholic 
faith, the objection of old Philip Volkov seems reasonable. I hope, therefore, that, in the course of time, the Russian 
church service may be voiced in English ; not that I want to substitute any other religion for it — far from it ; in my 
opinion it is the best one we could have for these people — but until this substitution of our language for the Russian 
is done, no very satisfactory work, in my opinion, will be accomplished in the way of an English education on the 
seal-islands. 

The fact that among all the savage races found on the northwest coast by Christian pioneers and teachers, the 
Aleutians are the only practical converts to Christianity, goes far, in my opinion, to set them apart as very differently 
constituted iu mind aud disposition from our Indians and our Eskimos of Alaska. To the latter, however, they 
seem to be intimately allied, though they do not mingle in the slightest degree. They adopted the Christian faith 
with very little opposition, readily exchanging their barbarous customs and wild superstitions for the rites of the 
Greek-Catholic church and its more refined myths and legends. 

At the time of their first discovery, they were living as savages in every sense of the word, bold and hardy, 
throughout the Aleutian chain, but now they respond, on these islands, to all outward signs of Christianity, as 
sincerely as onr own church-going people. 

6. THE ALASKA COMMERCIAL COMPANY. 

Occupation of the islands by Americans in 1868. — The Alaska Commercial Company deserves and will 
receive a brief but comprehensive notice at this point. In order that we may follow it to these islands, and clearly 
and correctly appreciate the circumstances which gave it footing and finally the control of the business, I will pass 
back and review the chain of evidence adduced in this direction from the time of our first occupation, in 18G7, of 
the territory of Alaska. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 25 

It will be remembered by many people, that when we were ratifying the negotiation between our government 
and that of Russia, it was made painfully apparent that nobody in this country knew anything about the subject of 
Russian America. Every schoolboy knew where it was located, but no professor or merchant, however wise or 
Shrewd, knew what was in it. Accordingly, immediately after the purchase was made and the formal transfer 
effected, a large number of energetic and speculative men, some coming from New England even, but most of them 
residents of the Pacific coast, turned their attention to Alaska. They went up to Sitka in a little fleet of sail- and 
steam-vessels, but among their number it appears there were only two of our citizens who knew of or had the 
faintest appreciation as to the value of the seal-islands. One of these, Mr. II. M. Hutchinson, a native of New 
Hampshire, and the other a Captain Ebenezer Morgan, a native of Connecticut, turned their faces in 1808 toward' 
them. Mr. Hutchinson gathered his information at Sitka— Captain Morgan had gained his years before by 
experience on the South Sea sealing grounds. Mr. Hutchinson represented a company of San Francisco or California 
capitalists when he landed on St. Paul ; Captain Morgan represented another company of New Loudon capitalists and 
whaling merchants. They arrived almost simultaneously, Morgan a few days or weeks anterior to Hutchinson. He 
had quietly enough commenced to survey and preempt the rookeries on the islands, or, in other words, the work of 
putting stakes down and recording the fact of claiming the ground, as miners do in the mountains ; but later agreed 
to cooperate with Mr. Hutchinson. These two parties passed that season of 1808 iu exclusive control of those 
islands, and they took an immense number of seals. They took so many that it occurred to Mr. Hutchinson 
unless something was done to check and protect these wonderful rookeries, which he saw here for the first time, 
and which filled him with amazement, that they would be wiped out by the end of another season ; although he 
was the gainer then, and would be perhaps at the end, if they should be thus eliminated, yet he could not forbear 
saying to himself that it was wrong and should not be. To this Captain Morgan also assented. 

Organization of the Alaska Commercial Company.— Iu the fall of 18G8 Mr. Hutchinson and Captain 
Morgan, by their personal efforts, interested and aroused the Treasury Department and Congress, so that a special 
resolution was enacted declaring the seal-islands a governmental reservation, and prohibiting any and all parlies 
from taking seals thereon until further action by Congress. In 1869, seals were taken on those islands, under the 
direction of the Treasury Department, for the subsistence of the natives only ; and in 1870 Congress passed the 
present law, a copy of which I append, for the protection of the fur-bearing auimals ou those islands, and under its 
provisions, and iu accordance therewith, after an animated and bitter struggle in competition, the Alaska Commercial 
Company, of which Mr. Hutchinson was a prime organizer, secured the award and received the franchise which it 
now enjoys and will enjoy for another decade. The company is an American corporation, with a charter, rules, and 
regulations, which I reproduce in the appendix to this memoir. They employ a fleet of vessels, sail and steam : four 
steamers, a dozen or fifteen ships, barks, and sloops. Their principal occupation and attention is given naturally to 
the seal islands, though they have stations scattered over the Aleutian islands and that portion of Alaska west and 
north of Kadiak. No post of theirs is less than 700 or 800 miles from Sitka. 

Outside of the seal-islands all trade in this territory of Alaska is entirely open to the public. There is no need 
of protecting the fur-bearing animals elsewhere, unless it may be by a few wholesome general restrictions in regard 
to the sea-otter chase. The country itself protects the animals on the mainland and other islands by its rugged, 
forbidding, and inhospitable exterior. 

The treasury officials on the seal-islands are charged with the careful observance of every act of the company; 
a copy of the lease and its covenant is conspicuously posted in their office; is translated into Russian, and is 
familiar to all the natives. The company directs its own labor, in accordance with the law, as it sees fit; selects its 
time of working, etc. The natives themselves work under the direction of their own chosen foremen, or "toyone". 
These chiefs call out the men at. the break of every working-day, divide them into detachments according to 
the nature of the service, and order their doing. All communication with the laborers on the sealiug-grouud and 
the company passes through their hands; these chiefs having every day an understanding with the agent of the 
company as to his wishes, and they govern themselves thereby. 

Business-methods. — The company pays 40 cents for the labor of taking each skin. The natives take the skins 
on the ground; each man tallying his work and g-iviug the result at the close of the day to his chief or foreman. 
"When the skins are brought up and counted into the salt-houses, where the agent of the company receives them 
from the hands of the natives, the two tallies usually correspond very closely, if they are not entirely alike. When t lie 
quota of skins is taken, at the close of two, three, or four weeks of labor, as the case may be, the total sum for 
the entire catch is paid over in a lump to the chiefs, and these men divide it among the laborers according to their 
standing as workmen, which they themselves have exhibited on their special tally-sticks. For instance, at the 
annual divisions, or "catch" settlement, made by the natives on St. Paul island among themselves, in 1872, when 
I was present, the proceeds of their work for that season iu taking and skinning 75,000 seals, at 40 cents per skin, 
with extra work connected with it, making the sum of $30,037 37, was divided among them in this way: .There 
were 74 shares made op, representing 74 men, though in fact only 5G men worked, but they wished to give a 
certain proportion to their church, a certain proportion to their priest, and a certain proportiou to their widows; so 
they water their stock, commercially speaking. The 74 shares were proportioned as follows : 



26 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

37 first-class shares, at $451 22 each. 

23 second-class shares, at 406 0t > each. 

4 third-class shares, at 360 97 each. 

10 fourth-class shares, at 315 85 each. 

These shares do not represent more than 56 able-bodied men. 

In August, 1873, while on St. George island, I was present at a similar division, under similar circumstances, 
which caused them to divide among themselves the proceeds of their work in taking and skinning 25,000 seals, at 
40 cents a skin, $10,000. They made the following subdivision : 

Per share. 
17 shares each, 9(51 skins $384 40 

2 shares each, 935 shins 374 00 

3 shares each, 821 skins 328 40 

1 share each, 820 skins 328 00 

3 shares each, 770 skins 308 00 

3 shares each, 400 skins 160 00 

These 29 shares referred to stated represent only 25 able-bodied men ; two of them were women. This method of 
division as above given, is the result of their own choice. It is an impossible thing for the company to decide their 
relative merits as workmen on the ground, so they have wisely turned its entire discussion over to them. "Whatever 
they do they must agree to — whatever the company might do they possibly and probably would never clearly 
understand, and hence dissatisfaction and suspicion would inevitably arise ; as it is, the whole subject is most 
satisfactorily settled. 

7. THE BUSINESS CONCERNED. 

The methods op the Alaska Commercial Company. — Living as the seal-islanders do, and doing what 
they do, the seal's life is naturally their great study and objective point. It nourishes and sustains them. 
Without it they say they could not live, and they tell the truth. Hence, their attention to the few simple 
requirements of the law, so wise in its provisions, is not forced or constrained, but is continuous. Self-interest 
in this respect appeals to them keenly and eloquently. They know everything that is done and everything that is 
said by anybody and by everybody in their little community. Every seal-drive that is made, and every skin that 
is taken, is recorded and accounted for by them to their chiefs and their church, when they make up their tithing- 
roll at the close of each day's labor. Nothing can come to the islands, by day or by night, without being seen by 
them and spoken of. I regard the presence of these people on the islands at the transfer, and their subsequent 
retention and entailment in connection with the seal-business, as an exceedingly good piece of fortune, alike 
advantageous to the government, to the company, and to themselves. 

It will be remembered that, at the time the question of leasing the islands was before Congress, much opposition 
to the proposal was made, on several grounds, by two classes, one of which argued against a "monopoly", the other 
urging that the government itself would realize more by taking the whole management of the business into its own 
hands. At that time far away from Washington, in the Rocky mountains, I do not know what arguments were 
used in the committee-rooms, or who made them; but since my careful and prolonged study of the subject on the 
ground itself, and of the trade and its conditions, I am now satisfied that the act of June, 1870, directing the 
Secretary of the Treasury to lease the seal-islands of Alaska to the highest bidder, under the existing conditions and 
qualifications, did the best and the only correct and profitable thing that could have been done in the matter, both 
with regard to the preservation of the seal-life in its original integrity, and the pecuniary advantage of the treasury 
itself. To make this statement perfectly clear, the following facts, by way of illustration, should be presented : 

First. When the government took possession of these interests, in 18C8 and 18C9, the gross value of a seal-skin 
laid down in the best market, at London, was less in some instances, and in others but slightly above the present 
tax and royalty paid upon it by the Alaska Commercial Company. 

Second. Through the action of the intelligent business-men who took the contract from the government, in 
stimulating and encouraging the dressers of the raw material, and in taking sedulous care that nothing but good 
skins should leave the islands, and in combination with leaders of fashion abroad, the demand for the fur, by this 
manipulation and management, has been wonderfully increased. 

Third. As matters now stand, the greatest and best interests of the lessees are identical with those of the 
government; what injures one instantly injures the other. In other words, both strive to guard against anything 
that shall interfere with the preservation of the seal-life in its original integrity, and both having it to their interest, 
if possible, to increase that life; if the lessees had it in their power, which they certainly have not, to ruin 
these interests by a few seasons of rapacity, they are so bonded and so environed that prudence prevents it. 

Fourth. The frequent changes in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, who has very properly the absolute 
control of the business as it stands, do not permit upon his part that close, careful scrutiny which is exercised by 
the lessees, who, unlike him, have but their one purpose to cany out. The character ot the leading men among 
them is enough to assure the public that the business is in responsible hands, and in the care of persons who will 
use every effort for its preservation and its perpetuation, as it is so plainly their best end to serve. Another great 
obstacle to the success of the busiuess, if controlled entirely by the government, would be encountered in disposing 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 27 

of the skins after they had been brought down from the islands. It would not do to sell them up there to the highest 
bidder, since that would license the sailing of a thousand ships to be present at. the sale. The rattling of their 
anchor-chains, and the scraping of their keels on the beaches of the two little islands, would alone drive every seal 
away ami over to the Russian grounds in a remarkably short space of time. The government would therefore 
need to offer them at public auction in this country, and it would be simply history repeating itself — the government 
would he at the mercy of any well-organized combination of buyers. The agents conducting the sale could not 
counteract the effect of such a combination as can the agents of a private corporation, who may look after their 
interest in all the markets of the world in their own time and in their own way, according to the exigencies of the 
season and the demand, and who are supplied with money which they can use, without public scandal, in the 
manipulation of the market. On this ground I feel confident in stating, that the treasury of the United States 
receives more money, net, under the system now in operation, than it would by taking the exclusive control of the 
business. Were any capable government officer supplied with, say, $100,000, to expend in "working the market", 
and intrusted with the disposal of 100,000 seal-skins wherever he could do so to the best advantage of the 
government, and were this agent a man of first-class business ability and energy, 1 think it quite likely that the 
same success might attend his labor in the Loudon market that distinguishes the management of the Alaska 
Commercial Company. But imagine the cry of fraud and embezzlement that would be raised against him, however 
honest he might be! This alone would bring the whole business into positive disrepute, and make it a national 
scandal. As matters are now conducted, there is no room for any scandal— not one single transaction on the 
islands but what is as clear to investigation and accountability as the light of the noon-day sun ; what is done is 
known to everybody, and the tax now laid by the government upon, and paid into the treasury every year by the 
Alaska Commercial Company, yields alone a handsome rate of interest on the entire purchase-money expended for 
the ownership of all Alaska. 

It is frequently urged with great persistency, by misinformed or malicious authority, that the lessees can and do 
take thousands of skins in excess of the law, and this catch in excess is shipped szib rosa to Japan from the Pribylov 
islands. To show the folly of such a move on the part of the company, if even it were possible, I will briefly 
recapitulate the conditions under which the skins are taken. The natives of St. Paul and St. George do themselves, 
iu the manner I have indicated, all the driving and skinning of the seals for the company. No others are 
permitted or asked to land upon the islands to do this work, so long as the inhabitants of the islands are equal 
to it. They have been equal to it and they are more than equal to it. Every skin taken by the natives is counted 
by themselves, as they get 40 cents per pelt for that labor; and at the expiration of each day's work iu the field, 
the natives know exactly how many skins have been taken by them, how many of these skins have been rejected 
by the company's ageut because they were carelessly cut and damaged in skinning— usually about three-fourths 
of one percent, of the whole catch — and they have it recorded every evening by those among them who are charged 
with the duty. Thus, were 101,000 skins taken, instead of 100,000 allowed by law, the natives would know it as 
quickly as it was done, and they would, on the strength of their record and their tally, demand the full amount of 
their compensation for the extra labor ; and were any ship to approach the islands, at any hour, these people would 
know it at once, and would be aware of any shipment of skins that might be attempted. It would then be the 
common talk among the 398 inhabitants of the two islands, and it would be a matter of record, open to any person 
who might come upon the ground charged with investigation. (See note, 39, L.) 

Furthermore, these natives are constantly going to and from Oonalashka, visiting their relations in the Aleutian 
settlements, hunting for wives, etc. On the mainland they have intimate intercourse with bitter enemies of the 
company, with whom they would uot hesitate to talk over the whole state of affairs on the islands, as they always do; 
for they know nothing else and think of nothing else and dream of nothing else. Therefore, should anything be 
done contrary to the law, the act could and would be reported by these people. The government, on its part, 
through its four agents stationed on these islands, counts these skins into the ship, and one of their number goes 
down to San Francisco upon her. There the collector of the port details experts of his own, who again count them 
all out of the hold, and upon that record the tax is paid and the certificate signed by the government. 

It will, therefore, at once be seen, by examining the state of affairs on the islands, and the conditions upon 
•which the lease is granted, that the most scrupulous care in fulfilling the terms of the contract is compassed, and 
that this strict fulfillment is the most profitable course for the lessees to pursue; and that it would be downright 
folly in them to deviate from the letter of the law, and thus lay themselves open at any day to discovery, the loss of 
their contract, and forfeiture of their bonds. Their action cau be investigated at any time, any moment, by Con- 
gress; of which they are fully aware. They cannot bribe these 398 people on the islands to secrecy, any more suc- 
cessfully than they could couceal their action from them on the sealing fields ; and any man of average ability could 
go, and can go, among these natives and inform himself as to the most minute details of the catch, from the time the 
lease was granted up to the present hour, should he have, reason to suspect the honesty of the treasury agents. The 
road to and from the islands is not a difficult one, though it is traveled only once a year. 

The subject of the method and direction of the business of sealing on these islands, involving as it does a 
discussion of the law aud the action of the Alaska Commercial Company and the natives combined, wdl form a 
thesis for auother chapter. 



28 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

E. THE. SEAL-LIFE ON THE PEIBYLOV ISLANDS. 

8. THE HAIR-SEAL. 

Enumeration of the taeious species op seals. — The history of the fur-seal, the one overshadowing and 
superlatively interesting subject of this discussion, I shall present in all its multitudinous details, even at the risk 
of being thought tedious. The aggregate of animal life shadowed every summer out upon the breeding grounds of 
the seal-islands is so vast, so anomalous, so interesting, and so valuable, that it deserves the fullest mention; and 
even when I shall have done, it will be but feebly expressed. 

The seal-life on the Pribylov islands may be classified under the following heads, namely: (1) The fur-seal, 
Callorhinus ursinus, the "kautickie" of the Russians; (2) the sea-lion, Eumetopias Stelleri, the "seevitchie" of the 
Russians; (3) the hair-seal, Phoca vitulina, the " nearhpahsky " of the Russians ; (4) the walrus, Odobcenus obesus, the 
"morsjee" of the Russians. 

The hair-seal. — The above short schedule embraces the titles of all the pinnipeds found in, on, and around the 
island group. Of this list the hair-seal is the animal which has done so much to found that erroneous, popular, and 
scientific opinion as to what a fur-seal appears like. Phoca vitulina has, in this manner, given to the people of the 
world a false idea of its relatives. It is so commonly distributed all over the littoral salt waters of the earth, seen 
in the harbors of nearly every marine port, or basking along the loueliest and least inhabited of desolate coasts far 
to the north, that everybody has noticed it, if not in life, then in its stuffed skins at the museums, sometimes 
very grotesquely stuffed. This copy, set everywhere before the eye of the naturalist, has rendered it so difficult 
for him to correctly discriminate between the Phocidce and the Otariidw, that the synonymy of the Pinnipedia has 
been expanded until it is replete with meaningless description and surmise. 

Although the hair-seal belongs to the great group of pinnipeds, yet it does not have even a generic affinity with 
those seals with which it has been so persistently grouped, namely, the fur-seal and the sea-lion. It no more 
resembles them, than does the raccoon the black or grizzly bear. 

I shall not enter into a detailed description of this seal; it is wholly superfluous, for excellent, and, I believe, 
trustworthy accounts have been repeatedly published by writers* who have treated of the subject as it was spread 
before their eyes on the coasts of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Greenland; to say nothing of the researches and 
notes made by European scientists. It differs completely in shape and habit from its congeners on these islands. 
Here, where I have studied its biology, it seldom comes up from the water more than a few rods at the farthest; 
generally hauling and resting at the margin of the surf- wash. It takes up no position on land to hold and protect 
a family or harem, preferring the detached water-worn rocks, especially those on the lonely north shore of St. Paul, 
although I have seen it resting at "Gorbotch", near the sea-margin of the great seal-rookery of that name, on the 
Reef point of St. Paul; its cylindrical, supine, gray and white body marked in strong contrast with the erect, black 
and ocher-colored forms of the Callorhinus, which swarmed around about it. On such small spots of rock, wet 
and isolated from the mainland, and in secluded places on the north shore, the "Nearhpah" brings forth its young, 
a single pup, perfectly white, covered with long woolly hair, and weighing from 3 to 7 pounds. This pup grows 
rapidly, and after the lapse of four or five months it tips the scales at 50 pounds; by that time it has shed its infant 
coat and donned the adult soft steel-gray hair over the head, limbs, and abdomen, with the back most richly mottled 
and barred lengthwise, by dark brown and brown-black streaks and blotches, suffused at their edges into the light 
steel-gray ground of the body. When they appear in the spring following, this bright gray tone to their color has 
ripened into a dingy ocher, and the mottling spread well over the head and down on the upper side or back of the 
flippers, but fades out as it progresses. It has no appreciable fur or under- wool. There is no noteworthy difference 
as to color or size between the sexes. So far as I have observed, they are not polygamous. They are exceedingly 
timid and wary at all times, and in this manner and method they are diametrically opposed, not by shape alone, but 
by habit and disposition, to the fashion of the fur-seal in especial, and the sea-lion. Their skin is of little value, 
comparatively, but their chief merit, according to the natives, is the relative greater juiciness and sweetness of 
their flesh, over even the best steaks of sea-lion or fur-seal pup meat. 

One common point of agreement among all authors was, by my observations of fact, so strikingly refuted, that 
I will here correct a prevalent error made by naturalists who, comparing the hair-seal with the fur-seal, state that 
in consequence of the peculiar structure of their limbs, their progression on laud is "mainly accomplished by a 
wriggling, serpentine motion of the body, slightly assisted by the extremities". This is not so in any respect; for 
whenever I have purposely surprised these animals, a few rods from the beach-margin, they would awake and 
excitedly scramble, or rather spasmodically exert themselves, to reach the water instantly, by striking out quickly 
with both fore-feet simultaneously, lifting in this way alone, and dragging the whole body forward, without any 
« wriggling motion" whatever to their back or posterior parts, moving from six inches to a foot in advance every 
time their fore-feet were projected forward, and the body drawn along according to the violence of the effort and 
the character of the ground; the body of the seal then falls flat upon its stomach, and the fore-feet or flippers are 



'A very complete resume has been given by Alleu, Hist. North American Pinnipeds, 1880. 



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THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 29 

five again for another similar motion. This action of Phoea is effected so continuously and so rapidly, that in 
attempting to head off a young "Nearhpah" from the water, at English bay, I was obliged to leave a brisk walk 
and take to a dug trot to do it. The hind-feet are not used when exerted in this rapid movement at all; they are 
dragged along in the wake of the body, perfectly limp and motionless. But they do use those posterior parts, 
however, when leisurely climbing up and over rocks undisturbed, or playing one with another; still it is always a 
weak, trembling terrestrial effort, and particularly impotent and clnmsy. In their swift swimming the hind-feet 
of Phocidce evidently do all the work; the reverse is the characteristic of the Otariidoe. 

These remarks of mine, it should be borne in mind, apply directly to Phoca vitulina, and I presume indirectly 
with equal force to all the rest of its more important generic kindred, be they as large as Phoca barbata or less. 

This hair-seal is found around these islands at all seasons of the year, but in vei y small numbers. I have never 
seen more than twenty-five or thirty at any one time, and I am told that its occidental distribution, although 
everywhere found, above and below, from the arctic to the tropics, and especially general over the Xoith Pacific 
coast, nowhere exhibits any great number at any one place; but we know that it and its immediate kindred 
form a vast majority of the multitudinous seal-life peculiar to our North Atlantic shores, ice floes, and contiguous 
waters. The scarcity of this species, and of all its generic allies, in the waters of the Pacific, is notable as compared 
with those of the circumpolar Atlantic, where these hair-seals are the seals of commerce, and are found in such 
immense numbers between Greenland and Labrador, and thence to the eastward at certain seasons* of every year, 
that employment is given to a fleet of about sixty sailing and steam vessels, which annually go forth t from St. John, 
Newfoundland, and elsewhere, fitted for seal-fishing, taking in all their voyages over .':'>< )<),<>< 10 of these animals each 
season ; the principal object of value, however, is the oil rendered from them, the skins having very small commercial 
importance.! Touching oil, etc., a business digest of this subject, as it refers to the seal-islands of Alaska, will be 
found in this memoir, in that portion descriptive of the methods employed by working the hauliug-grouuds of the 
"holluschickie". 

9. LIFE-HISTORY OF THE FUR-SEAL. 

Pr.srnrpTiON op AN adx t lt male. — The fur-seal, Callorhinus ursinus, which repairs to these islands to 
breed and to shed its hair and fur, in numbers that seem almost fabulous, is the highest organized of all the 
Pinnipedia, and, indeed, for that matter, when land and water are weighed in the account together, there is no other 
animal known to man which can be truly, as it is, classed superior, from a purely physical point of view. Certainly 
there are few, if any, creatures in the animal kingdom that can be said to exhibit a higher order of instinct, 
approaching even our intelligence. 

I wish to draw attention to a specimen of the finest of this race — a male in the flush and prime of his first 
maturity, six or seven years old, and full grown. When it comes up from the sea early in the spring, out to its station 
for the breeding season, we have an animal before us that will measure GJ to 1^ feet iu length from tip of nose to 
the end of its abbreviated, abortive tail. It will weigh at least 400 pounds, and I have seen older specimens much 
more corpulent, which, iu my best judgment, could not be less than GOO pounds in weight. The head of this 
animal now before us, appears to be disproportionately small in comparison with the immensely thick neck and 
shoulders; but, as we come to examine it we will find it is mostly all occupied by the brain. The light frame-work 
of the skull supports an expressive pair of large bluish hazel eyes; alternately burning with revengeful, passionate 
light, then suddenly changing to the toues of tenderness and good nature. It has a muzzle and jaws of about the 
same size and form observed iu any full-blooded Newfoundland dog, with this difference, that the lips are. not 
flabby and overhanging; they are as firmly lined and pressed against one another as our own. The upper lips 
support a yellowish white and gray moustache, composed of long, stiff bristles, and when it is not torn out aud 
broken off in combat, it sweeps down and over the shoulders as a luxuriant plume. Look at it as it comes 
leisurely swimming ou toward the land ; see how high above the water it carries its head, and how deliberately it 
surveys the beach, alter having stepped upon it (for it may be truly said to step with its fore-flippers, as they 
regularly alternate when it moves up), carrying the head well above them, erect aud graceful, at least three feet 

* Maxell and April. t Sailing on tbe 10th of March, simultaneously: the Canadian law prohibits earlier work iu this respect. 

{An excellent, and, as far as I know, a correct description of this seal-fishery in the North Atlantic has been published by Michael 
Carroll, in his Seal anil Herring Fisheries of Netofoundland. This gentleman writes in a uiauner indicative of much familiarity with the 
business, though it is to be regretted that his observations were not more systematized and concentrated. Mr. Carroll, when he 
published his work in 1873, had enjoyed a personal experience of over titty years in the hair-seal hunting of the North Atlantic, aud this 
report is, therefore, perhaps the best exposition of the habit and condition of those Phocida; that is extant; at least I should judge so. 
Robert Brown, in l-(i- (Proc. Zool. Society, London, pp. 413-418), gives a graphic sketch of the life of the Greenland hair-seal, while 
Ludwig Knmlein, in ■'Bulletin No. 15" of the United States National Museum, 1879, presents altogether the most interesting and valuable 
biology of the hair-seals in the waters of Cumberland sound that has as yet been printed. Allen, in his History of the North American 
Pinnipeds, 1S80, has. with painstaking labor, carefully compiled the pertinent remarks of a whole army of lesser authorities upon the 
doing and well-being of the Phocidce, aud has arranged them in his memoir so that they appear to the best advantage. Carroll's report 
is exceedingly interesting, and could he be induced to rewrite his notes, systematising them, or permit some naturalist to do so who might 
draw out from him information on important points, now hidden, the result undoubtedly would accrue greatly to the benefit of all 
concerned, and cause him to reap a fitting recognition of his knowledge of the subject, which seems to he very full and exhaustive, as tar 
as expressed by himself. 



30 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

from the ground. The forefeet, or flippers, are a pair of dark bluish-black hands, about S or 10 inches broad at 
their junction with the body, and the metacarpal joint, running out to an ovate point at their extremity, some 15 
to 18 inches from this union; all the rest of the forearm, the ulna, radius, and humerus being concealed under the 
skin and thick blubber-folds of the main body and neck, hidden entirely at this season, when it is so fat. But six 
weeks to three months after this time of landing, when that superfluous fat and flesh has been consumed by self- 
absorption, those bones show plainly under the shrunken skin. On the upper side of these flippers the hair of the 
body straggles down finer and fainter as it comes below to a point close by, and slightly beyond that spot of junction 
where the phalanges and the metacarpal bones unite, similar to that point on our own hand where our knuckles are 
placed; and here the hair ends, leaving the rest of the skin to the end of the flipper bare and wrinkled in places at 
the margin of the inner side; showing, also, fine small pits, containing abortive nails, which are situated immediately 
over the union of the phalanges with their cartilaginous continuations to the end of the flipper. 

On the under side of the flipper the skin is entirely bare, from its outer extremity up to the body connection ; 
it is sensibly tougher and thicker than elsewhere on the body ; it is deeply and regularly wrinkled with seams and 
furrows, which cross one another so as to leave a kind of sharp diamond-cut pattern. When they are placed by the 
animal upon the smoothest rocks, shiuing and slippery from algoid growths and the sea-polish of restless waters, 
they seldom fail to adhere. 

When we observe this seal moving out on the land, we notice that, though it handles its fore-feet in a. most 
creditable manner, it brings up its rear in quite a different style; for, after every second step ahead with the 
auterior limbs, it will arch its spine, and in arching, it drags and lifts up, and together forward, the hind-feet, to 
a fit position under its body, giving it in this manner fresh leverage for another movement forward by the fore- 
feet, in which the spine is again straightened out, and then a fresh hitch is taken up ou the posteriors once more, and 
so on as the seal progresses. This is the leisurely and natural movement on land, when not disturbed, the body all 
the time beiug carried clear of and never touching the ground. But if the creature is frightened, this method of 
progression is radically changed. It launches into a lope, and actually gallops so fast that the best powers of 
a man in running are taxed to head it off. Still, it must be remembered that it cannot run far before it sinks 
trembling, gasping, breathless, to the earth; thirty or forty yards of such speed marks the utmost limit of its 
endurance. 

The radical difference in the form and action of the hind-feet cannot fail to strike the eye at once ; they are 
one-seventh longer than the fore-hands, and very much lighter and more slender ; they resemble, in broad terms, a 
pair of black kid gloves, flattened out and shriveled, as they lie in their box. 

There is no suggestion of fingers on the fore-hands; but the hind-feet seem to be toes run into ribbons, for they 
literally flap about involuntarily from that point, where the cartilaginous processes unite with the phalangeal bones. 
The hind-feet are also merged in the body at their junction with it, like those anterior ; nothing can be seen of the 
leg above the tarsal joint. 

The shape of the hind-flipper is strikingly like that of a human foot, provided the latter were drawn out to a 
length of 20 or 22 inches, the instep flattened down, and the toes run out into thin, membraneous, oval-tipped points, 
only skiu-thick, leaving three strong, cylindrical, grayish, horn-colored nails, half an inch long each, back six 
inches from these skinny toe-ends, without any sign of nails to mention on the outer big and little toes. 

On the upper side of this hind-foot the body-hair comes down to that point where the metatarsus and phalangeal 
bones join and fade out. From this junction the phalanges, about six inches down to the nails above mentioned, 
are entirely bare, and stand ribbed up in bold relief on the membrane which unites them, as the web to a duck's 
foot; the nails just referred to mark the ends of the phalangeal bones, and their union in turn with the 
cartilaginous processes, which run rapidly tapering and flattening out to the ends of the thin toe-points. Now, as 
we are looking at this fur-seal's motion and progression, that which seems most odd, is the gingerly manner (if I 
may be allowed to use the expression) in which it carries these hind flippers ; they are held out at right angles from 
the body directly opposite the pelvis, the toe-ends or flaps slightly waving, curled, and drooping over, supported 
daintily, as it were, above the earth, the animal only suffering its weight behind to fall upon its heels, which are 
themselves opposed to each other, scarcely five inches apart. 

We shall, as we see this seal again later in the season, have to notice a different mode of progression and 
bearing, both when it is lording over its harem, or when it grows shy and restless fit the end of the breeding season, 
then faint, emaciated, and dejected; but we will now proceed to observe him in the order of his arrival and that of 
his family. His behavior during the long period of fasting and unceasing activity and vigilance, and other cares 
which devolve upon him as the most eminent of all polygamists in the brute world, I shall carefully relate; and to 
fully comprehend the method of this exceedingly interesting animal, it will be irequently necessary for the reader 
to refer to my sketch-maps of its breeding-grounds or rookeries, and the islands. 

Arrival at the seal-grounds : Coming in of the bulls. — The adult males are the first examples of 
the CallprMnus to arrive in the spring on the seal-ground, which has been deserted by all of them since the close 
of the preceding year. 

Between the 1st and 5th of May, usually, a few males will be found scattered over the rookeries, pretty close to 
the water. They are, at this time, quite shy and sensitive, seeming not yet satisfied with the land ; and a great many 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 31 

spend day after day idly swimming- out among the breakers, a little distance from the shore, before tliey come to 
it, perhaps somewhat reluctant at first to enter upon the assiduous duties and the grave responsibilities before 
them in lighting for and maintaining their positions in the rookeries. 

The first arrivals are not always the oldest bulls, but may be said to be the finest and most ambitions of their 
class. They are full grown and able to hold their places on the rookeries or the breeding-fiats, which they 
immediately take up after coming ashore. Their method of landing is to come collectively to those breeding- 
grounds where they passed the prior season; but I am not able to say authoritatively, nor do I believe it, strongly 
as it has been urged by many careful men who were with me on the islands, that these animals come back to 
and take up the same position ou their breeding-grounds that they individually occupied when there last year. 
From my knowledge of their action and habit, and from what I have learned of the natives, I should say that 
very few, if any, of them make such a selection and keep these places year after year. Even did the seal 
itself intend to come directly from the sea to that spot on the rookery which it left last summer, what could it do 
if it came to that rookery-margin a little late, and found that another " see-catch" had occupied its ground ? The 
bull could do nothing. It would either have to die in its tracks, if it persisted in attaining this supposed objective 
point, or do what undoubtedly it does do— seek the next best locality which it can attain adjacent. 

One old "see-catch" was pointed out to me at the "Gorbatck" section of the Eeef rookery, as an animal that 
was long known to the natives as a regular visitor, close by or on the same rock, every season during the past three 
years. They called him "Old John", and they said they knew him because he had one of his posterior digits 
missing, bitten off, perhaps, in a combat. I saw him in 1872, and made careful drawings of him in order that I 
might recognize his individuality, should he appear again in the following year, and when that time rolled by I 
found him not; he failed to reappear, and the natives acquiesced in his absence. Of course it was impossible to 
say that he was dead, when there were 10,000 rousing, fighting bulls to the right, left, and below us, under our 
eyes, for we could not approach for inspection. Still, if these animals came each to a certain place in any 
general fashion, or as a rule, I think there would be no difficulty in recognizing the fact; the natives certainly 
would do so; as it is, they do not. I think it very likely, however, that the older bulls come back to the same 
common rookery-ground where they spent the previous season; but they are obliged to take up their position on it 
just as the circumstances attending their arrival will permit, such as finding other seals which have arrived 
before them, or of being whipped out by stronger rivals from their old stands. 

It is entertaining to note, in this connection, that the Eussians themselves, with the object of testing this mooted 
query, during the later years of their possession of the islands, drove up a number of young males from Lukanuon, 
cut off their ears, and turned them out to sea again. The following season, when the droves came in from the 
"hauliug-grouuds" to the slaughtering-fields, quite a number of those cropped seals were iu the drives, but instead 
of being found all at one place— the place from whence they were driven the year before— they were scattered 
examples of croppies from every point on the island. The same experiment was again made by our people in 
1870 (the natives having told them of this prior undertaking), and they went also to Lukanuon, drove up 100 
young males, cut off their left ears, and set them free in turn. Of this number, during the summer of 1872, when I 
was there, the natives found in their driving of 75,000 seals from the different hauliug-grounds of St. Paul up to the 
village killing-grounds, two on Xovastosknak rookery, 10 miles north of Lukanuon, and two or three from English 
bay and Tolstoi rookeries, 6 miles west by water; one or two were taken on St. George island, 3G miles to the 
southeast, and not one from Lukanuon was found among those that were driven from there; probably, had all 
the young males on the two islands this season been examined, the rest of the croppies that had returned 
from the perils of the deep, whence they sojourned during the winter, would have been distributed quite equally 
about the Pribylov hauling-grounds. Although the natives say that they think the cutting off of the animal's ear 
gives the water such access to its head as to cause its death, yet I noticed that those examples which we had 
recognized by this auricular mutilation, were normally fat aud well developed. Their theory does not appeal to my 
belief, and it certainly requires confirmation. 

These experiments would tend to prove very cogently and conclusively, that when the seals approach the islands 
in the spring, they have nothing in their minds but a general instinctive appreciation of the fitness of the laud, as 
a whole ; and no special fondness or determination to select any one particular spot, not even the place of their birth. 
A study of my map of the distribution of the seal-life on St. Paul, clearly indicates that the landing of the seals 
on the respective rookeries is influenced greatly by the direction of the wind at the time of their approach to the 
islands iu the spring and early summer. The prevailing airs, blowing, as they do at that season, from the north 
aud northwest, carry far out to sea the odor of the old rookery-tlats, together with the fresh scent of the pioneer 
bulls which have located themselves on these breeding-grounds, three or four weeks in advance of their kiud. The 
seals come up from the great Xorth Pacific, and hence it will be seen that the rookeries of the south and 
southeastern shores of St. Paul island receive nearly all the seal-life, although there are miles of perfectly eligible 
ground at Nahsayvernia, or north shore. To settle this matter beyond all argument, however, I know is an 
exceedingly difficult task, for the identification of individuals, from one season to another, among the hundreds of 
thousands, and even millions, that come under the eye on one of these great rookeries, is well nigh impossible. 



32 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

From the time of the first arrival in May up to the beginning of June, or as late as the middle of that month, 
if the weather be clear, is an interval in which everything seems quiet. Very few seals are added to the pioneers 
that have lauded, as we have described. By the 1st of June, however, sometimes a little before, and never much 
later the seal weather — the foggy, humid, oozy damp of summer— sets in ; and with it, as the gray banks roll up 
and shroud the islands, the bull-seals swarm from the depths by hundreds and thousands, and locate themselves in 
advantageous positions for the reception of the females, which are generally three weeks or a month later than this 
date in arrival. 

Pre-emption of the rookeries: Battles of the seals. — The labor of locating and maintaining a 
position on the rookery is really a terribly serious business for these bulls which come in last; and it is so all the 
time to those males that occupy the water line of the breeding-grounds. A constantly-sustained fight between the 
newcomers and the occupants goes on morning, noon, and night, without cessation, frequently resulting in death 
to one or even both of the combatants. 

It appears, from my survey of these breeding-grounds, that a well-understood principle exists among the 
able-bodied bulls, to wit : that each oue shall remain undisturbed on his grouud, which is usually about six to 
eight feet square; provided that at the start, and from that time until the arrival of the females, he is strong 
enough to hold this ground against all comers; inasmuch as the crowding in of the fresh arrivals often causes the 
removal of those which, though equally able-bodied at first, have exhausted themselves by fighting earlier and 
constantly ; they are finally driven by these fresher animals back farther and higher up on the rookery ; and 
sometimes off altogether. 

Many of those bulls exhibit wonderful strength and desperate courage. I marked one veteran at Gorbatch, 
who was the first to take up his position early in May, and that positiou, as usual, directly at the water-line. This 
male seal had fought at least forty or fifty desperate battles, and fought off his assailants every time— perhaps 
nearly as many different seals which coveted his position— aud when the fighting season was over (after the cows 
are mostly all hauled up), I saw him still there, covered with scars and frightfully gashed ; raw, festering, and 
bloody, one eye gouged out, but lording it bravely over his harem of fifteen or twenty females, who were all 
huddled together on the same spot of his first location and around him. 

This fighting between the old and adult males (for none others fight) is mostly, or rather entirely, done with 
the month. The opponents seize one another with their teeth, aud, then clenching their jaws, nothing but the sheer 
strength of the one and the other tugging to escape can shake them loose, and that effort invariably leaves an ugly 
wound, the sharp canines tearing out deep gutters in the skin aud furrows in the blubber, or shredding the flippers 
into ribbon-strips. 

They usually approach each other with comically averted heads, just as though they were ashamed of the 
rumpus which they are determined to precipitate. When they get near enough to reach one another they enter 
upon the repetition of many feints or passes, before either one or the other takes the initiative by griping. The 
heads are darted out aud back as quick as a flash; their hoarse roaring and shrill, piping whistle never ceases, while 
their fat bodies writhe and swell with exertion aud rage ; furious lights gleam in their eyes ; their hair flies in the 
air, and their blood streams down ; all combined, makes a picture so fierce and so strange that, from its unexpected 
position and its novelty, is perhaps one of the most extraordinary brutal contests man can witness. 

In these battles of the seals, the parties are always distinct ; the one is offensive, the other defensive. If the 
latter proves the weaker he withdraws from the position occupied, and is never followed by his conqueror, who 
complacently throws up one of his hind-flippers, fans himself, as it were, to cool his fevered wrath and blood from 
the heat of the conflict, sinks into comparative quiet, only uttering a peculiar chuckle of satisfaction or contempt, 
with a sharp eye open for the next covetous bull or " see catch ".* 

Attitudes and coloration of the fur-seals. — The period occupied by the males in taking and holding 
their positions on the rookery, offers a very favorable opportunity to sludy them in the thousand and one different 
attitudes and postures assumed, between the two extremes of desperate conflict and deep sleep — sleep so profound 
that oue can, if he keeps to the leeward, approach close enough, stepping softly, to pull the whiskers of any old 
male taking a nap on a clear place ; but after the first touch to these moustaches, the trifler must jump with electrical 
celerity back, if he has any regard for the sharp teeth and tremendous shaking which will surely overtake him if 
he does not. The younger seals sleep far more soundly than the old ones, and it is a favorite pastime for the 
natives to surprise them in this manner — favorite, because it is attended with no personal risk; the little beasts, 
those amphibious sleepers, rise suddenly, and fairly shrink to the earth, spitting and coughing their terror and 
confusion. 

The neck, chest, and shoulders of a fur-seal bull comprise more than two-thirds of his whole weight; and in 
this long, thick neck, and the powerful muscles of the fore-limbs and shoulders, is embodied the larger portion of his 
strength. When on land, with the fore-hands he does all climbing over the rocks and grassy hummocks back of the 
rookery, or shuffles his way over the smooth parades ; the hind-feet being gathered up as useless trappings 
after every second step forward, which we have described at the outset of this chapter. These anterior flippers are 

* '• See-catch," native name for tlie bulls ou the rookeries, especially those which are able to maintain their position. 




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THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 33 

also the propelling power when in -water, the exclusive machinery with which they drive their rapid passage; the 
hinder ones, floating behind like the steering sweep to a whale-boat, used evidently as rudders, or as the tail of a 
bird is, while its wings sustain and force its rapid flight. 

The covering to the body is composed of two coats, one being a short, crisp, glistening over-hair; and the other 
a close, soft, elastic pelage, or fur, which gives the distinctive value to the pelt. I can call it readily to the mind 
of my readers, when I say to them that the down and feathers on the breast of a duck lay relatively as the fur and 
hah- do upon the skin of the seal. 

At this season of first "hauling up",* in the spring, the prevailing color of the bulls, after they dry off and 
have been exposed to the weather, is a dark, dull brown, with a sprinkling in it of lighter brown-black, and a 
number of hoary or grizzly gray coats peculiar to the very old males. On the shoulders of all of them, that is, 
the adults, the over-hair is either a gray or rufous ocher, or a very emphatic "peprjer and salt"; this is called the 
" wig". The body-colors are most intense and pronounced upon the back of the head, neck, and spine, fading down 
on the flanks lighter, to much lighter ground on the abdomen ; still never white or even a clean gray, so beautiful 
and peculiar to them when young, and to the females. The skin of the muzzle and flippers is a dark bluish-black, 
fading in the older examples to a reddish and purplish tint. The color of the ears and tail is similar to that of 
the body, perhaps a trifle lighter; the ears on a bull fur-seal are from one inch to an inch and a half in length ; the 
pavilions or auricles are tightly rolled up on themselves, so that they are similar in shape to, and exactly the size of, 
the little finger on the human hand, cut off at the second phalangeal joint, a trifle more cone-shaped, however, as 
they are greater at the base than they are at the tip. They are haired and furred as the body is. 

I think it probable that this animal has and does exert the power of compressing or dilating this scroll-like 
pavilion to its ear, just according as it dives deeper or rises in the water; and also, I am quite sure that the hair- 
seal has this control over the meatus externvs, from what I have seen of it. I have not been able to verify it in 
either case by actual observation: yet such opportunity as I have had gives me undoubted proof of the fact, that 
the hearing of the fur-seal is wonderfully keen and surpassingly acute. If you make any noise, no matter how 
slight, the alarm will be given instantly by these insignificant-looking auditors, and the animal, awaking from 
profound sleep, assumes, with a single motion, an erect posture, gives a stare of stupid astonishment, at the same 
time breaking out into incessant, surly roaring, growling, and "spitting". 

Voice of the fue-seal. — This spitting, as I call it, is by no means a fair or full expression of the most 
characteristic sound or action, so far as I have observed, peculiar to the fur-seals alone, the bulls in particular. It 
is the usual prelude to all their combats, and it is their signal of astonishment. It follows somewhat in this 
way: when the two disputants are nearly within reaching or striking distance, they make a number of feints 
or false passes, as fencing-masters do, at one another, with the mouth wide open, lifting the lips or snarling so as 
to exhibit the glistening teeth, and with each pass of the head and neck they expel the air so violently through 
the larynx, as to make a rapid choo-choo-choo sound, like steam-puffs as they escape from the smoke-stack of a 
locomotive when it starts a heavy train, especially while the driving-wheels slip on the rail. 

All of the bulls have the power and frequent inclination to utter four distinct calls or notes. This is 
not the case with the sea-lion, t whose voice is confined to a single bass roar, or that of the walrus, which is 
limited to a dull grunt, or that of the hair-seal, f which is inaudible. This volubility of the fur-seal is decidedly 
characteristic and prominent; he utters a hoarse, resonant roar, loud and long; he gives vent to a low, entirely 
different, gurgling growl; he emits a chuckling, sibilant, piping whistle, of which it is impossible to convey 
an adequate idea, for it must be heard to be understood; and this spitting or clioo sound just mentioned. 
The co\vs§ have but one note — a hollow, prolonged, bla-a-ting call, addressed only to their pups; on all other 
occasions they are usually silent. It is something strangely like the cry of a calf or an old sheep. They also make 
a spitting sound or snort when suddenly disturbed — a kind of a cough, as it were. The pups " blaat " also, with little 
or no variation, their sound being somewhat weaker and hoarser than their mother's, after birth ; they, too, comically 
spit or cough when aroused suddenly from a nap or driven into a corner, opening their little mouths like young 
birds in a nest, when at bay, backed up in some crevice, or against some tussock. 

Indeed, so similar is the sound, that I noticed that a number of sheep which the Alaska Commercial Company 
had brought up from San Francisco to St. George island, during the summer of 1873, were constantly attracted to 
the rookeries, and were running in among the "holluschiekie"; so much so, that they neglected the good pasturage 

* "Hauling up," a technical term, applied to the action of the seals when they land from the surf and haul up or drag themselves 
over the beach. It is expressive and appropriate, as are most of the scaling phrases. 

iEumctopias Stclleri. t Phoca vitulina. 

$ Without explanation, I may he considered as making use of paradoxical language by using these terms of description; for the 
inconsistency of talking of "pups", with "cows", and "bulls", and "rookeries", on the breeding-grounds of the same, cannot fail to be 
noticed; but this nomenclature has been given and used by the American and English whaling and sealing parties for many years, and 
the characteristic features of the seals themselves so suit the naming, that I have felt satisfied to retain the stylo throughout as rendering 
my description more intelligible, especially so to those who are engaged in the business, or may be hereafter. The Russians are more 
consistent, but not so "pat"; they call the bull "see-catch", a term implying strength, vigor, etc. ; the cow, "matkah," or mother; the 
pups, " kotickie," or little seals; the non-breeding males under six and seven years, " holluschiekie," or bachelors. The name applied 
collectively to the fur-seal by them is "morskic-kot/' or sea-cat. 



34 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

on the uplands beyond, and .1 small boy bad to be regularly employed to herd them where they could feed to 
advantage. These transported OvidoB, though they could not possibly find anything in their eyes suggestive of 
companionship among the seals, had their ears so charmed by the sheep-like accents of the female pinnipeds, as 
to persuade them against their senses of vision and smell. 

The sound which arises from these great breeding-grounds of the fur-seal, where thousands upon tens of 
thousands of angry, vigilant bulls ai*e roaring, chuckling, and piping, and multitudes of seal-mothers are calling 
in hollow, blaating tones to their young, that in turn respond incessantly, is simply defiance to verbal description. 
It is, at a slight distance, softened into a deep booming, as of a cataract] and I have heard it, with a light, fair wind 
to the leeward, as far as six miles out from land on the sea; and even in the thunder of the surf and the roar of 
heavy gales, it will rise up and over to your ear for quite a considerable distance away. It is the monitor whicb 
the sea-captains anxiously strain their ears for, when they run their dead reckoning up, and are laying to for the 
fog to rise, in order that they may get their bearings of the land ; once beard, they hold on to the sound and feel 
their way in to anchor. The seal-roar at "Novastoshnah" during the summer of 1872, saved the life of the surgeon*, 
and six natives belonging to the island, who bad pushed out on an egging-trip from Northeast point to Walrus 
island. I have sometimes thought, as I have listened through the night to this volume of extraordinary sound, 
which never ceases with the rising or the setting of the sun throughout the entire season of breeding, that it was 
fully equal to the churning boom of the waves of Niagara. Night and day, throughout the season, this din upon 
the rookeries is steady and constant. 

Effects of heat on the seals. — The seals seem to suffer great inconvenience and positive misery from a 
comparatively low degree of heat. I bave often been surprised to observe that, when tbe temperature was 46° and 
48° Fahr. on laud during the summer, they would show everywhere signs of distress, whenever they made any 
exertion in moving or fighting, evidenced by panting and the elevation of their hind-flippers, which they used 
incessantly as so many fans. With the thermometer again higher, as it is at rare intervals, standing at 55° and 60°, 
they then seem to suffer even when at rest ; and at such times the eye is struck by the kaleidoscopic appearance of 
a rookery — in any of these rookeries where the seals are spread out in every imaginable position their lithesome 
bodies can assume, all industriously fan themselves ; they use sometimes tbe fore-flippers as ventilators, as it were, 
by holding them aloft motionless, at the same time fanning briskly with the hinder ones, according as they sit or lie. 
This wavy motion of fanning or flapping gives a hazy indistinctness to tbe whole scene, which is difficult to express 
in language ; but one of tbe most prominent characteristics of the fur-seal, and perhaps the most unique feature, is 
this very fanning manner in which they use their flippers, when seen on the breeding-grounds at this season. They 
also, when idle, as it were, off-shore at sea, Me on their sides in the water with only a partial exposure of the body, 
the head submerged, and then hoist up a fore- or hind-flipper clear out of the water, at the same time scratching 
themselves or enjoying a momentary nap ; but in this position there is no fanning. I say '"scratching", because 
the seal, in common with all animals, is preyed upon by vermin, and it has a peculiar species of louse, or parasitic 
tick, that belongs to it. 

Sleeping afloat. — Speaking of tbe seal as it rests in the water, leads me to remark that they seem to sleep 
as sound and as comfortably, bedded on the waves or rolled by the swell, as they do on the land ; they lie on their 
backs, fold tbe fore-flippers down across tbe chest, and turn the hind ones up and over, so that tbe tips rest on their 
necks and chins, thus exposing simply the nose and tbe heels of the hind- flippers above water, nothing else being 
seen. In this position, unless it is very rough, the seal sleeps as serenely as did the prototype of that memorable 
song, who was " rocked in tbe cradle of tbe deep ". 

Fasting of the seals at the kookeries : Intestinal woems. — All the bulls, from the very first, that 
bave been able to hold their positions, bave not left them from the moment of tbeir landing for a single instant, 
night or day; nor will they do so until the end of the rutting season, whicb subsides entirety between the 1st and 
10th of August, begiuning shortly after the coming of the cows in June. Of necessity, therefore, this causes them 
to fast, to abstain entirely from food of any kind, or water, for three months at least; and a few of them actually 
stay out four months, in total abstinence, before going back into the water for the first time after "hauling up" in 
May; they then return as so many bony shadows of what they were only a few months anteriorly; covered with 
wounds, abject and spiritless, they laboriously crawl back to the sea to renew a fresh lease of life. 

Such physical endurance is remarkable enough alone ; but it is simply wonderful, when we come to associate 
this fasting with the unceasing activity, restlessness, and duty devolved upon the bulls as the beads of large 
families. They do not stagnate like bibernating bears in caves ; tbere is not one torpid breath drawn by them 
in the whole period of tbeir fast ; it is evidently sustained and accomplished by tbe self-absorption of their own 
fat, with which they are so liberally supplied when they first come out from the sea and take up their positions on 
the breeding-grounds ; and which gradually disappears, until nothing but tbe staring bide, protruding tendons and 
bones mark tbe limit of tbeir abstinence. There must be some remarkable provision made by nature for tbe 

* Dr. Otto Cramer. The suddenness with which fog and wind shut down and sweep over the sea here, even when the day opens most 
auspiciously for a short boat-voyage, has so alarmed the natives in times past, that a visit is now never made by them from island to 
island, unless on one of Ihe company's vessels. Several bidarrahs have never been heard from, which, in earlier times, attempted to sail, 
with picked crews of the natives, from one island to the other. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 35 

entire torpidity of Hie seals' stomachs and bowels, in consequence of their being empty and misapplied daring this 
long period, coupled with the iutense activity and physical energy of the animals throughout that time, which, 
however, in spite of tbe violation of a supposed physiological law, does not seem to affect them, for they come back 
just as sleek, fat, aud ambitious as ever, in the following season. 

I have examined tbe stomachs of hundreds which were driven up and killed immediately after their arrival in 
the spring, near the village; I have the word of the natives here, who have seen hundreds of thousands of them 
opened during the slaughtering-seasons past, but in no single case has anything ever been found, other than the 
bile and ordinary secretions of healthy organs of this class, with the marked exception of finding in every one a 
snarl or cluster of worms,* from the size of a waluut to a bunch as large as a man's fist. Fasting apparently has 
no effect upon the worms, for on the rare occasion, and perhaps the last one that will ever occur, of killing three or 
four hundred old bulls late in the fall to supply the natives with canoe skins, I was present, and again examined 
their paunches, finding the same asearidae within. They were lively in these empty stomachs, and their presence, 
I think, gives some reason for the habit which the old bulls have (the others do not) of swallowing small 
water-worn bowlders, the stones in some of the stomachs weighing half a pound apiece, in others much smaller. 
In one paunch I found over five pounds, in the aggregate, of large pebbles, which, in grinding against one another, 
I believe, must comfort the seal by aiding to destroy, in a great measure, those intestinal pests. 

The sea-lion is also troubled iu the same way by a similar species of worm, and I preserved the stomach of one 
of these animals in which there was more than ten pounds of stones, some of them alone very great in size. Of 
this latter animal, I suppose it could swallow bowlders that weigh two and three pounds each. I can ascribe 
no other cause for this habit among those animals than that given, as they are the highest type of the carnivora, 
eating fish as a regular means of subsistence, varying the monotony of this diet with occasional juicy fronds of 
sea-weed or kelp, and perhaps a crab or such once in a while, provided it is small and tender or soft-shelled. I know 
that the sailors say that the Callorhinus swallows these stones to "ballast" himself; in other words, to enable him 
to dive deeply and quickly ; but I noticed that the females and the " holluschickie " dive quicker and swim better 
than the old fellows above specified, and they do so without any ballast. They also have less muscular power, 
only a tithe of that which the " see-catch" possesses. No, the ballast theory is not tenable. (See note, 39, J.) 

Arrival of the cow-seals at the rookeries. — Between the 12th and 14th of June, the first of the cow- 
seals, as a rule, come up from the sea; then the long agony of the waiting bulls is over, and they signalize it by 
a period of universal, spasmodic, desperate fighting among themselves. Though they have quarreled all the time 
from the moment they first landed, and continue to do so until the end of the season, in August, yet that fighting 
which takes place at tbis date is the bloodiest and most vindictive known to the seal. I presume that the heaviest 
percentage of mutilation and death among the old males from these brawls, occur in this week of the earliest 
appearance of the females. 

A strong contrast now between the males and females looms up, both in size and shape, which is heightened 
by the air of exceeding peace and dove-like amiability which the latter class exhibit, in contradistinction to the 
ferocity 7 and saturnine behavior of the former. 

Description of the cow-seal. — The cows are from 4 to 4J feet in length from head to tail, and much more 
shapely in their proportions than the bulls; there is no wrapping around their necks and shoulders of unsightly 
masses of blubber ; their lithe, elastic forms, from the first to the last of the season, are never altered ; this they 
are, however, enabled to keep, because in the provision of seal-economy, ttyey sustain no protracted fasting period ; 
for, soon after the birth of their young they leave it on the ground and go to the sea for food, returning perhaps 
to-morrow, perhaps later, even not for several days in fact, to again suckle and nourish it ; having in the mean 
time sped far off to distant fishing banks, and satiated a hunger which so active and. highly organized an animal 
must experience, when deprived of sustenance for any T length of time. 

As the females come up wet and dripping from the water, they are at first a dull, dirty-gray color, dark on the 
back and upper parts, but in a few hours the transformation in their appearance made by drying is wonderful. 
You would hardly believe that they could be the same animals, for they now fairly glisten with a rich steel aud 
maltese gray luster on the back of the head, the neck, and along down the spine, which blends into an almost 
enow-white over the chest and on the abdomen. But this beautiful coloring in turn is again altered by exposure 
to the same weather; for after a few days it will gradually change, so that by the lapse of two or three weeks it is 
a dull, rufous-ocher below, and a cinereous brown and gray mixed above. This color they retain throughout the 
breeding-season, up to the time of shedding their coat in August. 

The head and eye of the female are exceedingly beautiful ; the expression is really attractive, gentle, and 
intelligent ; the large, lustrous, blue-black eyes are humid and soft with the tenderest expression, while the small, 
well formed head is poised as gracefully on her neck as can be well imagined; she is the very picture of benignity 
and satisfaction, when she is perched up on some convenient rock, and has an opportunity to quietly fan herself, the 
eyes half-closed and the head thrown back on her geutly-swelling shoulders. 

The females land on these islands not from the slightest desire to see their uncouth lords and masters, but from 



36 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

an accurate and instinctive appreciation of the time in which their period of gestation ends. They are in fact 
driven up to the rookeries by this cause alone ; the young cannot be brought forth in the water, and in all cases 
marked by myself, the pups were born soon after landing, some in a few hours, but most usually a day or so 
elapses before delivery. 

Organization of the rookeries. — They are noticed and received by the males on the water-line stations 
with attention ; they are alternately coaxed and urged up on to the rocks, as far as these beach-masters can do so, 
by chuckling, whistling, and roaring, and then they are immediately under the most jealous supervision ; but, 
owing to the covetous and ambitious nature of the bulls which occupy these stations to the rear of the water-line 
and way back, the little cows have a rough-and-tumble time of it when they begin to arrive in small numbers at 
first; for no sooner is the pretty animal fairly established on the station of male number one, who has welcomed her 
there, then he, perhaps, sees another one of her style in the water from whence she has come, and, in obedience to 
his polygamous feeling, devotes himself anew to coaxing the later arrival, by that same winning manner so successful 
in the first case; then when bull number two, just back, observes bull number one off guard, he reaches out with his 
long strong neck and picks up the unhappy but passive cow by the scruff of her's, just as a cat does a kitten, and 
deposits her upon his seraglio ground ; then bulls number three and four, and so on, in the vicinity, seeing this 
high-handed operation, all assail one another, especially number two, and for a moment have a tremendous fight, 
perhaps lasting half a minute or so, and during this commotion the little cow is generally moved, or moves, farther 
back from the water, two or three stations more, where, when all gets quiet again, she usually remains in peace. 
Her last lord and master, not having the exposure to such diverting temptation as her first, gives her such care 
that she not only is unable to leave, did she wish, but no other bull can seize upon her. This is only a faint (and I 
fully appreciate it), wholly inadequate description of the hurly-burly and the method by which the rookeries are 
filled up, from first to last, when the females arrive. That is only one instance of the many trials and tribulations 
which both parties on the rookery subject themselves to, before the harems are filled. 

Far back, fifteen or twenty "see-catchie" stations deep from the water-line, and sometimes more, but generally 
not over an average of ten or fifteen, the cows crowd in at the close of the season for arriving, which is by the 10th 
or 14th of July ; then they are able to go about pretty much as they please, for the bulls have become so greatly 
enfeebled by this coustant fasting, fighting, and excitement during the past two months, that they are quite content 
now even with only one or two partners, if they should have no more. 

The cows seem to haul up in compact bodies from the water, filling in the whole ground to the rear of the 
rookeries, never scattering about over the surface of this area ; they have mapped out from the first their chosen 
resting places, and they will not lie quietly in any position outside of the great mass of their kind. This is due to 
their intensely gregarious nature, and admirably adapted for their protection. And here I should call attention to 
the fact, that they select this rookery-ground with all the skill of civil engineers. It is preferred with special 
reference to the drainage, for it must lie so that the produce of the constantly dissolving fogs and rain-clouds shall 
not lie upon them, having a great aversion to, and a firm determination to rest nowhere on water-puddled ground. 
This is admirably exhibited, and will be understood by a study of my sketch-maps which follow, illustrative of 
these rookeries and the area and position of the seals upon them. Every one of those breeding grounds slopes up 
gently from the sea, and on no one of them is there anything like a muddy flat. 

I found it an exceedingly difficult matter to satisfy myself as to a fair general average number of cows to each 
bull on the rookery; but, after protracted study, I think it will be nearly correct when I assign to each male a 
general ratio of from fifteen to twenty females at the stations nearest the water ; and for those back in order from 
that line to the rear, from five to twelve; but there are so many exceptional cases, so many instances where 
forty-five and fifty females are all under the charge of one male ; and then, again, where there are two or three 
females only, that this question was and is not entirely satisfactory in its settlement to my mind. 

Near Ketavie point, and just above it to the north, is an odd wash-out of the basalt by the. surf, which has 
chiseled, as it were, from the foundation of the island, a lava table, with a single roadway or land passage to it. 
Upon the summit of this footstool I counted forty-five cows, all under the charge of one old veteran. He had them 
penned up on this table-rock by taking his stand at the gate, as it were, through which they passed up and passed 
down — a Turkish brute typified. 

Unattached males. — At the rear of all these rookeries there is invariably a large number of able-bodied 
males which have come late, but wait patiently, yet in vain, for families ; most of them having had to fight as 
desperately for the privilege of being there as any of their more fortunately-located neighbors, who are nearer the 
water, and in succession from there to where they are themselves ; but the cows do not like to be in any outside 
position. They cannot be coaxed out where they are not in close company with their female mates and masses. 
They lie most quietly and contentedly in the largest harems, and cover the surface of the ground so thickly that 
there is hardly moving or turning room until the females cease to come from the sea. The inaction on the part of 
the males in the rear during the breeding-season only serves to qualify them to move into the places which are 
necessarily vacated by those males that are, in the mean-time, obliged to leave from virile exhaustion, or incipient 
wounds. All the surplus able-bodied males, that have not been successful in effecting a landiug on the rookeries, 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 37 

cannot at any one time daring the season be seen here on this rear line. Only a portion of their number are in 
sight ; the others are either loafing at sea, adjacent, or are hauled out in morose squads between the rookeries on 
the beaches. 

Courage OF the pur-seals. — The courage with which the fur-seal holds his position as the head and 
guardian of a family, is of the highest order. I have repeatedly tried to drive them from their harem posts, when 
they were fairly established on their stations, and have always failed, with few exceptions. I might use every stone 
at my command, making all the noise I could. Finally, to put their courage to the fullest test, I have walked up to 
within twenty feet of an old veteran, toward the extreme end of Tolstoi, who had only four cows in charge, and 
commenced with my double-barreled fowling-piece to pepper him all over with fine mustard-seed shot, being kind 
enough, in spite of my zeal, not to put out his eyes. Ilis bearing, in spite of the noise, smell of powder, and 
painful irritation which the fine shot must have produced, did not change in the least from the usual attitude of 
determined, plucky defense, which nearly all of the bulls assumed when attacked with showers of stones and noise; 
he would dart out right and left with his long neck and catch the timid cows, that furtively attempted to run after 
each report of my gun, fling and drag them back to their places under his head ; and then, stretching up to his full 
height look me directly and defiantly in the face, roaring and chuckling most vehemently. The cows, however, 
soon got away from him ; they could not stand my racket in spite of their dread of him ; but he still stood his 
ground, making little charges on me of ten or fifteen feet, in a succession of gallops or lunges, spitting furiously, and 
then comically retreating to the old position, with an indescribable leer and swagger, back of which he would not 
go, fully resolved to hold his own or die in the attempt. 

This courage is all the more noteworthy from the fact that, in regard to man, it is invariably of a defensive 
character. The seal is always on the defensive; he never retreats, and he will not attack. If he makes you return 
when you attack him, he never follows you much farther thau the boundary of his station, and then no aggravation 
will compel hioi to take the offensive, so far as I have been able to observe. I was very much impressed by this 
trait. 

Behavior of the female seals on the rookeries. — The cows, during the whole season, do great credit 
to their amiable expression, by their manner and behavior on the rookery; they never fight or quarrel one with 
another, and never or seldom utter a cry of pain or rage when they are roughly handled by the bulls, which 
frequently get a cow between them and actually tear the skin from her back with their teeth, cutting deep gashes 
in it as they snatch her from mouth to mouth. If sand does not get into these wounds it is surprising how rapidly 
they heal ; and, from the fact that I never could see scars on them anywhere except the fresh ones of this year, 
they must heal effectually and exhibit no trace the next season. 

The cows, like the bulls, vary much iu weight, but the extraordinary disparity in the size of the sexes, adult, 
is exceedingly striking. Two females taken from the rookery nearest to St. Paul village, right under the bluffs, 
and almost beneath the eaves of the natives' houses, called "Nab Speel", after they had brought forth their young, 
were weighed by myself, and their respective returns on the scales were 5G and 100 pounds each ; the former being 
about three or four years old, and the latter over six — perhaps ten ; both were fat, or rather in good condition — as 
good as they ever are. Thus the female is just about one-sixth the size of the male.* Among the sea-lions the 
proportion is just one-half the bulk of the male,t while the hair-seals, as I have before stated, are not distinguishable 
in this respect, as far as I could observe, but my notice was limited to a few specimens only. 

Attitudes of fur-seals on land. — It is quite beyond my power, indeed entirely out of the question, to 
give a fair idea of the thousand and one positions in which the seals compose themselves and rest when on land. 
They may be said to assume every possible attitude which a flexible body can be put into, no matter how characteristic 
or seemingly forced or constrained. Their joints seem to be double-hinged; in fact, all ball and socket union of 
the bones. One favorite position, especially with the females, is to perch upon a point or edge-top of some rock, 
and throw their heads back upou their shoulders, with the nose held directly up and aloft; and then closing their 
eyes, to take short naps without changing their attitude, now and then softly Ufting one or the other of their long, 
slender hind-flippers, which they slowly wave with that peculiar fanning motion to which I have alluded heretofore. 
Another attitude, and one of the most common, is to curl themselves up just as a dog does on a hearth-rug, 
bringing the tail and nose close together. They also stretch out, laying the head close to the body, and sleep an 
hour or two without rising, holding one of the hind-flippers up all the time, now and then gently moving it, the 
eyes being tightly closed. 

I ought, perhaps, to define the anomalous tail of the fur-seal here. It is just about as important as the 
caudal appendage to a bear, even less significant ; it is the very emphasis of abbreviation. In the old males it is 
positively only four or five inches iu length, while among the females only two and a half to three inches, wholly 
inconspicuous, and not even recognized by the casual observer. 

Sleeping seals. — I come now to speak of another feature which interested me nearly, if not quite, as much 
as any other characteristic of this creature; and that is their fashion of slumber. The sleep of the fur-seal, seen on 
laud, from the old male down to the youngest, is always accompanied by an involuntary, nervous, muscular twitching 

* Adult male and female. t Adult male and female : Eumviop'ias Stvlkri. 



38 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

ami slight shifting of the flippers, together with ever and anon quivering and uneasy rollings of the body, accompanied 
by a quick folding anew of the fore-flippers; all of which may be signs, as it were, in fact, of their simply having 
nightmares, or of sporting, in a visionary way, far off in some dreamland sea; but perhaps very much as 
an old nurse said, in reference to the smiles on a sleeping child's face, they are disturbed by their intestinal 
parasites. I have studied hundreds of such somnolent examples. Stealing softly up so closely that' I could lay 
my hand upon them from the point where I was sitting, did I wish to, and watching the sleeping seals, I have 
always found their sleep to be of this nervous description. The respiration is short and rapid, but with no 
breathing (unless the ear is brought very close) or snoring sound ; the quivering, heaving of the flanks only 
indicates the action of the lungs. I have frequently thought that I had succeeded in finding a snoring seal, 
especially among the pups; but a close examination always gave some abnormal reason ior it; generally a slight 
distemper, never anything severer, however, than some trifle, by which the nostrils were stopped up to a greater or 
less degree. 

The cows on the rookeries sleep a great deal, but the males have the veriest cat-naps that can be imagined. I 
never could time the slumber of any old male on the breeding-grounds, which lasted without interruption longer 
than five minutes, day or night ; while away from these places, however, I have known them to lie sleeping in the 
manner I have described, broken by these fitful, nervous, dreamy starts, yet without opening the eyes, for an hour 
or so at a time. 

With the exception of the pups, the fur-seal seems to have very little rest awake or sleeping ; perpetual motion 
is well nigh incarnate with its being. 

Fur-seal pups. — As I have said before, the females, soon after landing, are delivered of their young. 
Immediately after the birth of the pup (twins are rare, if ever) the little creature finds its voice, a weak, husky 
blaat, and begins to paddle about with its eyes wide open from the start, in a confused sort of way for a few 
minutes, until the mother turns around to notice her offspring and give it attention, and still later to suckle it ; 
and for this purpose she is supplied with four small, brown nipines, almost wholly concealed in the fur, and which 
are placed about eight inches apart, lengthwise with the body, on the abdomen, between the fore- and hind-flippers, 
with about four inches of space between them transversely. These nipples are seldom visible, and then faintly 
seen through the hair and fur. The milk is abundant, rich, and creamy. The pups nurse very heartily, almost 
gorging themselves, so much so that they often have to yield up the excess of what they have taken down, mewling 
and puking in the most orthodox manner. 

The pnp from birth, and for the next three months, is of a jet-black color, hair and flippers, save a tiny white 
patch just back of each forearm. It weighs first from three to four pounds, and is twelve to fourteen inches long. 
It does not seem to nurse more than once every two or three days, but in this I am very likely mistaken, for they 
may have received attention from the mother in the night, or other times in the day when I was unable to keep up 
my watch over the individuals which I had marked for this supervision. 

The apathy with which the young are treated by the old on the breeding-grounds, especially by the mothers, 
was very strange to me, and I was considerably surprised at it. I have never seen a seal-mother caress or fondle 
her offspring ; and should it stray to a short distance from the harem, I could step to and pick it up, and even kill 
it before the mother's eye, without causing her the slightest concern, as far as all outward signs and manifestation 
would indicate. The same indifference is also exhibited by the male to all that may take place of this character 
outside of the boundary of his seraglio ; but the moment the pups are inside the limits of his harem-ground, he is 
a jealous and a fearless protector, vigilant and determined ; but if the little animals are careless enough to pass 
beyond this boundary, then I can go up to them and carry them off before the eye of the old Turk without 
receiving from him the slightest attention in their behalf — a curious guardian, forsooth ! 

It is surprising to me how few of these young pups get crushed to death while the ponderous males are 
floundering over them, engaged in fighting and quarreling among themselves. I have seen two bulls dash at each 
other with all the energy of furious rage, meeting right in the midst of a small " pod " of forty or fifty pups, 
tramp over them with all their crushing weight, and bowling them out right and left in every direction by the 
impetus of their movements, without injuring a single one, as far as I could see. Still, when we come to consider 
the fact that, despite the great weight of the old males, their broad, flat flippers and yielding bodies may press 
down heavily on these little fellows without actually breaking bones or mashing them out of shape, it seems 
questionable whether more than one per cent, of all the pups born each season on these great rookeries of the 
Pribylov islands are destroyed in this manner on the breeding- grounds.* 

The vitality of the fur-seal is simply astonishing. His physical organization passes beyond the fabled nine 
lives of the cat. As a slight illustration of its tenure of life, I will mention the fact, that one morning the chief 
came to me with a pup in his arms, which had just been born, and was still womb-moist, saying that the mother 
had been killed at Tolstoi by accident, and he supposed that I would like to have a "choochil".t I took it up 

* The only damage which these little fellows have up here, is being caught by an October gale down at the surf-margin, when they 
have not fairly learned to swim; large numbers have been destroyed by sudden "nips" of this character, 
t Specimen to stuff. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 39 

into my laboratory, and finding that it could walk about and make a great noise, I attempted to feed it, with the 
idea of having a comfortable subject to my pencil, for life study, of the young in the varied attitudes of sleep and 
motiou. It refused everything that I could summon to its attention as food; and, alternately sleeping and walking, 
in its clumsy fashion, about the floor, it actually lived nine days — spending the half of every day in floundering 
over the floor, accompanying all movement with a persistent, hoarse, blaating cry — and I do not believe it ever had 
a single drop of its mother's milk. 

In the pup, the head is the only disproportionate feature at birth, when it is compared with the adult form ; the 
neck being also relatively shorter and thicker. The eye is large, round and full, but almost a " navy blue " at times, 
it soon changes into the blue-black of adolescence. 

The females appear to go to and come from the water to feed and bathe, quite frequently, after bearing their 
young, and the immediate subsequent coitus with the male ; and usually return to the spot or its immediate 
neighborhood, where they leave their pups, crying out for them, and recognizing the individual replies, though ten 
thousand around, all together, should blaat at once. They quickly single out their own and nurse them. It would 
certainly be a very unfortunate matter if the mothers could not identify their young by sound, since their pups get 
together like a great swarm of bees, and spread out upon the ground in what the sealers call " pods", or clustered 
groups, while they are young and not very large ; but from the middle or end of September, until they leave the 
islands for the dangers of the great Pacific, in the winter, along by the first of November, they gather in this 
manner, sleeping and frollickiug by tens of thousands, bunched together at various places all over the islands 
contiguous to the breeding-grounds, and right on them. A mother comes up from the sea, whither she has been to 
wash, and perhaps to feed, for the last day or two, feeling her way along to about where she thinks her pup should 
Tje — at least where she left it last — but perhaps she misses it, and finds instead a swarm of pups in which it has been 
incorporated, owing to its great fondness for society. The mother, without first entering into the crowd of thousands, 
calls out just as a sheep does for a lamb ; and, out of all the din she — if not at first, at the end of a few trials — 
recognizes the voice of her offspring, and then advances, striking out right and left, toward the position from which 
it replies. But if the pup happens at this time to be asleep, it gives, of course, no response, even though it were 
close by ; in the event of this silence the cow, after calling for a time without being answered, curls herself up and 
takes a nap, or lazily basks, to be usually more successful, or wholly so, when she calls again. 

The pups themselves do not know then" own mothers — a fact which I ascertained by careful observation — but 
they are so constituted that they incessantly cry out at short intervals during the whole time they are awake, and in 
this way the mother can pick out from the monotonous blaating of thousands of pups, her own, and she will not 
permit any other to suckle it; but the "kotickie" themselves attempt to nose around every seal-mother that comes 
in contact with (hem. (See note, 39, I.) 

Disorganization of the eookeeies. — Between the end of July and the 5th or 8th of August of every year, 
the rookeries are completely changed in appearance; the systematic and regular disposition of the families or harems 
over the whole extent of breeding-ground has disappeared ; all that clock-work order which has heretofore existed 
seems to be broken up. The breeding-season over, those bulls which have held their positions since the first of May 
leave, most of them thin in flesh and weak, and of their number a very large proportion do not come out again on 
land during the season ; but such as are seen at the end of October and November, are in good flesh. They have a 
new coat of rich, dark, grey-browu hair and fur, with gray or grayish ocher " wigs" of longer hair over the shoulders, 
forming a fresh, strong contrast to the dull, rusty, brown and umber dress in which they appeared to us during the 
summer, and which they had begun to shed about the first of August, in common with the females and the 
"holluschickie". After these males leave, at the close of their season's work and of the rutting for the year, those 
of them that happen to return to the land in any event do not come back until the end of September, and do not 
haul upon the rookery-grounds again. As a rule they prefer to herd together, like the younger males, upon the sand- 
beaches and rocky points close to the water. 

The cows and pups, together with those bulls which we have noticed in waiting in the rear of the rookeries, 
and which have been in retirement throughout the whole of the breeding-season, now take possession, in a very 
disorderly manner, of the rookeries. There come, also, a large number of young, three, four, and five-year old 
males, which have been prevented by the menacing threats of the older, stronger bulls, from landing among the 
females during the ruttiug-season. 

Before the middle of August three-fourths, at least, of the cows at this date are off in the water, only coming 
ashore at irregular intervals to nurse and look after their pups a short time. They presented to my eye, from the 
summits of the bluffs round about, a picture more suggestive than anything I have ever seen presented by animal 
life, of entire comfort and enjoyment. Here, just out and beyond the breaking of the rollers, they idly lie on the 
rocks or sand-beaches, ever and anon turning over and over, scratching their backs and sides with their fore- and 
hind-flippers. The seals on the breeding-ground appear to get very lousy. (See note, 39, K.) 

Mangy cows and pups. — The frequent winds and showers drive and spatter sand into their fur and eyes, 
often making the latter quite sore. This occurs when they are obliged to leave the rocky rookeries and follow their 
pups out over the sand-ridges and flats, to which they always have a natural aversion. On the hauling-grounds 



40 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

they pack the soil under foot so hard and tightly in many places, that it holds water in the surface depressions, just 
like so many rock-basins. Out of and into these puddles the pups and the females flounder and patter incessantly, 
until evaporation slowly abates the nuisance. This is for the time only, inasmuch as the next day, perhaps, brings 
more rain, and the dirty pools are replenished. 

The pups sometimes get so thoroughly plastered in these muddy, slimy puddles, that the hair falls off in 
patches, giving them, at first sight, the appearance of being troubled with scrofula or some other plague: from my 
investigations, directed to this point, I became satisfied that they were not permanently injured, though evidently 
very much annoyed. With reference to this suggestion as to sickness or distemper among the seals, I gave the 
subject direct and continued attention, and in no one of the rookeries could I discover a single seal, no matter how 
old or young, which appeared to be suffering in the least from any physical disorder, other than that which they 
themselves had inflicted, one upon the other, by fighting. The third season, passing directly under my observation, 
failed to reward my search with any manifestation of disease among the seals which congregate in such mighty 
numbers on the rookeries of St. Paul and St. George. The remarkable freedom from all such complaints enjoyed 
by these animals is noteworthy, and the most trenchant and penetrating cross-questioning of the natives, also, 
failed to give me any history or evidence of an epidemic in the past. 

Hospitals. — The observer will, however,, notice every summer, gathered in melancholy squads of a dozen to 
one hundred or so, scattered along the coast where the healthy seals never go, those sick and disabled bulls which 
have, in the earlier part of the season, been either internally injured or dreadfully scarred by the teeth of their 
opponents in fighting. Sand is blown by the winds into the fresh wounds and causes an inflammation and a 
sloughing, which very often finishes the life of the victim. The sailors term these invalid gatherings "hospitals", a 
phrase which, like most of their homely expressions, is quite appropriate. 

Young seals learning to swim. — Early in August, usually by the 8th or 10th, I noticed one of the 
remarkable movements of the season. I refer to the pup's first essay in swimming. Is it not odd — paradoxical — 
that the young seal, from the moment of his birth until he is a month or six weeks old, is utterly unable to swim ? 
If he is seized by the nape of the neck and pitched out a rod into the water from shore, his bullet-like head will 
drop instantly below the surface, and his attenuated posterior extremities flap impotently on it ; suffocation is the 
question of only a few minutes, the stupid little creature not knowing how to raise his immersed head and gain 
the air again. After they have attained the age I indicate, their instinct drives them down to the margin of the 
surf, where the alternate ebbing and flowing of its wash covers and uncovers the rocky or sandy beaches. They 
first smell and then touch the moist pools, and flounder in the upper wash of the surf, which leaves them as suddenly 
high and dry as it immersed them at first. After this beginning they make slow and clumsy progress in learning 
the knack of swimming. For a week or two, when overhead in depth, they continue to flounder about in the most 
awkward manner, thrashing the water as little dogs do, with their fore- feet, making no attempt whatever to use the 
hinder ones. Look at that pup now, launched out for the first time beyond his depth; see how he struggles — his 
mouth wide open, and his eyes fairly popping. He turns instantly to the beach, ere he has fairly struck out from the 
point whence he launched in, and, as the receding swell which at first carried him off his feet and out, now returning, 
leaves him high and dry, for a few minutes he seems so weary that he weakly crawls up, out beyond its swift 
returning wash, and coils himself up immediately to take a recuperative nap. He sleeps a few miuutes, perhaps 
half an hour, then awakes as bright as a dollar, apparently rested, and at his swimming lesson he goes again. By 
repeated and persistent attempts, the young seal gradually becomes familiar with the water and acquainted with 
his own power over that element, which is to be his real home and his whole support. Once boldly swimming, the 
pup fairly revels in his new happiness. He and his brethren have now begun to haul and swarm along the whole 
length of St. Paul coast, from Northeast point down and around to Zapadnie, lining the alternating sand-beaches 
and rocky shingle with their plump, black forms. How they do delight in it! They play with a zest, and chatter 
like our own children in the kindergartens — swimming in endless evolutions, twisting, Turning, or diving — and when 
exhausted, drawing their plump, round bodies up again on the beach. Shaking themselves dry as young dogs 
would do, they now either go to sleep on the spot, or have a lazy terrestrial frolic among themselves. 

How an erroneous impression ever got into the mind of any man in this matter of the pup's learning to swim, 
I confess that I am wholly unable to imagine. I have not seen any "driving" of the young pups into the water 
by the old ones, in order to teach them this process, as certain authors have positively affirmed.* There is not the 
slightest supervision by the old mother or father of the pup, from the first moment of his birth, in this respect, 
until he leaves for the North Pacific, full-fledged with amphibious power. At the close of the breeding season, every 
year, the pups are restlessly and constantly shifting back and forth over the rookery ground of their birth, in large 
squads, sometimes numbering thousands upon thousands. In the course of this change of position they all sooner 
or later come in contact with the sea; they then blunder into the water for the first time, in a most awkward, 
ungainly manner, and get out as quick as they can ; but so far from showing any fear or dislike of this, their most 
natural element, as soon as they rest from their exertion they are immediately ready for a new trial, and keep at it, 
provided the sea is not too stormy or rough. During all this period of self-tuition they seem thoroughly to enjoy 
the exercise, in spite of their repeated and inevitable discomfitures at the beginning. 

* Allen. History of North American Pinnipeds, p. 387. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 41 

Podding op the pups. — The "podding" of these young pups in the rear of the great rookeries of St. 
Paul, is one of the most striking and interesting phases of this remarkable exhibition of highly-organized life. 
When they first bunch together they are all black, for they hare not begun to shed the natal coat : they shine with 
an unctuous, greasy reflection, and grouped in small armies or great regiments on the sand-dune tracts at Northeast 
point, they present a most extraordinary and fascinating sight. Although the appearance of the "holluschickie" at 
English bay fairly overwhelms the observer with the impression of its countless multitudes, yet I am free to declare, 
that at no one point in this evolution of the seal-life, during the reproductive season, have I been so deeply stricken 
by the sense of overwhelming enumeration, as I have when, standing on the summit of Cross hill, I looked down to 
the southward and westward over a reach of six miles of alternate grass and sand-dune stretches, mirrored upon 
which were hundreds of thousands of these little black pups, spread in sleep and sport within this restricted field 
of vision. They appeared as countless as the grains of the sand upon which they rested. 

Second change op coat. — By the 15th of September, all the pups born during the year have become familiar 
with the water; they have all learned to swim, and are now nearly all down by the water's edge, skirting in large 
masses the rocks and beaches previously this year unoccupied by seals of any class. Now they are about five or 
six times their original weight, or, in other words, they are 30 to 40 pounds avoirdupois, as plump and fat as butter- 
balls, and they begin to take on their second coat, shedding their "black pup-hair completely. This secoud coat 
does not vary in color, at this age, between the sexes. They effect this transformation in dress very slowly, and 
cannot, as a rule, be said to have ceased their molting until the middle or 20th of October. 

This second coat, or sea-going jacket, of the pup, is a uniform, dense, light-gray over-hair, with an under-fur 
which is slightly grayish in some, but is, in most cases, a soft, light-brown hue. The over-hair is flue, close, and 
elastic, from two thirds of an inch to an inch in length, while the fur is not quite half an inch long. Thus the 
coarser hair shingles over and conceals the soft under-wool completely, giving the color by which, after the second 
year, the sex of the animal is recoguized. The pronounced difference between the sexes is not effected, however, 
by color alone until the third year of the animal. This over-hair of the young pup's new jacket on the back, neck, 
and head, is a dark chinchilla-gray, blending into a si one-white, just tinged with a grayish tint on the abdomen and 
chest. The upper lip, upon which the whiskers or moustaches take root, is covered with hair of a lighter gray 
than that of the body. This moustache consists of fifteen or twenty longer or shorter bristles, from half an inch 
to three inches in length, some brownish, horn-colored, and others whitish-gray and translucent, on each side and 
back and below the nostrils, leaving the muzzle quite prominent and hairless. The nasal openings and their 
surroundings are, as I have before said when speaking of this feature, similar to those of a dog. 

Eyes of the pup-seals. — The most attractive feature about the fur-seal pup, and that which holds this place 
as it grows on and older, is the eye. This organ is exceedingly clear, dark, and liquid, with which, for beauty and 
amiability, together with real intelligence of expression, those of no other animal that I have ever seen, or have 
ever read of, can be compared; indeed, there are few eyes in the orbits of men and women which suggest more 
pleasantly the ancient thought of their being "windows to the soul". The lids to the eye are fringed with long, 
pei feet lashes, and the slightest irritation in the way of dust or sand, or other foreign substances, seems to cause 
them exquisite annoyance, accompanied by immoderate weeping. This involuntary tearfulness so moved Steller 
that he ascribed it to the processes of the seal's mind, and declared that the seal-mothers actually shed tears. 

Bange of vision. — I do not think that their range of vision on land, or out of the water, is very great. 
I have frequently experimented with adult fur-seals, by allowing them to catch sight of my person, so as to 
distinguish it as of foreign character, three and four hundred paces off, taking the precaution of standing to the 
leeward of them when the wind was blowing strong, and then walking unconcernedly up to them. I have invariably 
noticed, that they would allow me to approach quite close before recognizing my strangeness; this occurring to 
them, they at once made a lively noise, a medley of coughing, spitting, snorting, and blaating, and plunged in spasmodic 
lopes and shambled to get away from my immediate neighborhood; as to the pups, they all stupidly stare at the 
form of a human being until it is fairly on them, when they also repeat in miniature these vocal gymnastics and 
physical efforts of the older ones, to retreat or withdraw a few rods, sometimes only a few feet, from the spot upon 
M'hieh you have cornered them, after which they instantly resume their previous occupation of either sleeping or 
playing, as though nothing had happened. (See note, 39, M.) 

Pover of scent : Odor of the seals. — The greatest activity displayed by any one of the five senses of 
the seal, is evidenced in its power of scent. This faculty is all that can be desired in the line of alertness. I never 
failed to awaken an adult seal from the soundest sleep, when from a half to a quarter of a mile distant, no matter 
how softly I proceeded, if I got to the windward, though they sometimes took alarm when I was a mile off. 

They leave evidences of their being on these great reproductive fields, chiefly at the rookeries, in the hundreds 
of dead carcasses which mark the last of those animals that have been rendered infirm, sick, or were killed by 
lighting among themselves in the early part of the season, or of those which have crawled far away from the scene 
of battle to die from death- wounds received in the bitter struggle for a harem. On the rookeries, wherever these 
lifeless bodies rest, the living, old and young, clamber and patter backward and forward over and on the putrid 
remains, and by this constant stirriug up of decayed matter, give rise to an exceedingly disagreeable and far- 



42 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

reaching " funk". This lias been, by all writers who have dwelt on the subject, referred to as the smell which these 
animals emit for another reason — erroneously called the "rutting odor". If tliese creatures have any odor peculiar 
tn them when in this condition, I will frankly confess that I am unable to distinguish it from the fumes which are 
constantly being stirred up and rising out of those decaying carcasses of the older seals, as well as from the 
bodies of the few pups which have been killed accidentally by the heavy bulls fighting over them, charging back 
and forth against one another, so much of the time. 

They have, however, a very characteristic and peculiar smell, when they are driven and get heated; their 
breath exhalations possess a disagreeable, faint, sickly odor, and when I have walked within its influence at the 
rear of a seal-drive, I could almost fancy, as it entered my nostrils, that I stood beneath an ailanthus tree in bloom ; 
but this odor can by no means be confounded with what is universally ascribed to another cause. It is also 
noteworthy, that if your finger is touched ever so lightly to a little fur-seal blubber, it will smell very much like that 
which I have appreciated and described as peculiar to their breath, which arises from them when they are driven, 
only it is a little stronger. Both the young and old fur-seals have this same breath-taint at all seasons of the year. 

Eeview of statements concerning lipe in the eookeeies. — To recapitulate and sum up the system 
and regular method of life and reproduction on these rookeries of St. Paul and St. George, as the seals seem to 
have arranged it, I shall say that — 

First. The earliest bulls laud in a negligent, indolent way, at the opening of the season, soon after the rocks at 
the water's edge are free from ice, frozen snow, etc. This is, as a rule, about the 1st to the 5th of every May. They 
land from the beginning to the end of the season in perfect confidence and without fear; they are very fat, and will 
weigh at an average 500 pounds each ; some stay at the water's edge, some go to the tier back of them again, and 
so on until the whole rookery is mapped out by them, weeks in advance of the arrival of the first female. 

Second. That by the 10th or 12th of June, all the male stations on the rookeries have been mapped out and 
fought for, and held in waiting by the " see-catchie". These males are, as a rule, bulls rarely ever under six years of 
age ; most of them are over that age, being sometimes three, and occasionally doubtless four, times as old. 

Third. That the cows make their first appearance, as a class, on or after the 12th or 15th of June, in very small 
numbers ; but rapidly after the 23d and 25th of this month, every year, they begin to flock up in such numbers as 
to fill the harems very perceptibly; and by the Sth or 10th of July, they have all come, as a rule — a few stragglers 
excepted. The average weight of the females now will not be much more than SO to 90 pounds each. 

Fourth. That the breeding-season is at its height from the 10th to the 15th of July every year, and that it 
subsides entirely at the end of this month and early in August: also, that its method and system are confined 
entirely to the land, never effected in the sea. 

Fifth. That the females bear their first young when they are three years old, and that the period of gestation 
is nearly twelve months, lacking a few days only of that lapse of time. 

Sixth. That the females bear a single pup each, and that this is born soon after landing; no exception to this 
rule has ever been witnessed or recorded. 

Seventh. That the "see-catchie" which have held the harems from the beginning to the end of the season, 
leave for the water in a desultory and straggling manner at its close, greatly emaciated, and do not return, if they 
do at all, until six or seven weeks have elapsed, when the regular systematic distribution of the families over the 
rookeries is at an end for this season. A general medley of young males now are free, which come out of the 
water, and wander over all these rookeries, together with many old males, which have not been on seraglio duty, 
and great numbers of the females. An immense majority over all others present are pups, since only about 25 per 
cent, of the mother-seals are out of the water now at any one time. 

Eighth. That the rookeries lose their compactness and definite boundaries of true breeding-limit and expansion 
by the 25th to the 28th of July every year; then, after this date, the pups begin to haul back, and to the right and 
left, iu small squads at first, but as the season goes on, by the 18th of August, they depart without reference to 
their mothers ; and when thus scattered, the males, females, and young swarm over more than three and four times 
the area occupied by them when breeding and born on the rookeries. The system of family arrangement and 
uniform compactness of the breeding classes breaks up at this date. 

Ninth. That by the Sth or 10th of August the pups born nearest the water first begin to learn to swim ; and that 
by the 15th or 20th of September they are all familiar, more or less, with the exercise. 

Tenth. That by the middle of September the rookeries are entirely broken up; confused, straggling bands of 
females are seen among bachelors, pups, and small squads of old males, crossing and recrossing the ground in an 
aimless, listless manner. The season now is over. 

Eleventh. That many of the seals do not leave these grounds of St. Paul and St. George before the end of 
December, and some remain even as late as the 12th of January; but that by the end of October and the beginning 
of November every year, all the fur-seals of mature age — five and six years, and upward — have left the islands. 
The younger males go with the others: many of the pups still range about the islands, but are not hauled to any 
great extent on the beaches or the flats. They seem to prefer the rocky shore-margin, and to lie as high up as they 
can get on such bluffy rookeries as Tolstoi and the Eeef. By the end of this month, November, they are, as a rule, 
all gone. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 43 

Sncb is the snm and the substance of my observations which relate to the breeding-grounds alone on St. Paul 
and St. George. It is the result of summering and wintering on them, and these definite statements I make with 
that confidence which one always feels, when he speaks of that which has entered into his mind by repeated 
observation, and has been firmly grounded by careful deductions therefrom. 

10. THE "HOLLUSCHICKIE" OE "BACHELOR" SEALS— A DESCRIPTION. 

The hauling-grounds and their occupants. — I now call the attention of the reader to another very 
remarkable feature in the economy of the seal-life on these islands. The great herds of "holluschickie",* numbering 
from one-third to one half, perhaps, of the whole aggregate of near 5,000,000 seals known to the Pribylov group, 
are never allowed by the " see-catchie", under the pain of frightful mutilation or death, to put then- flippers on or 
near the rookeries. 

By reference to my map, it will be observed that I have located a large extent of ground — markedly so on 
St. Paul— as that occupied by the seals' "hauling-grounds" ; this area, in fact, represents those portions of the island 
upon which the "holluschickie" roam in their heavy squadrons, wearing off and polishing the surface of the soil, 
stripping every foot, which is indicated on the chart as such, of its vegetation and mosses, leaving the margin as 
sharply defined on the bluffy uplands and sandy flats as it is on the map itself. 

The reason that so much more land is covered by the "holluschickie" than by the breeding-seals— ten times as 
much at least— is due to the fact, that though not as numerous, perhaps, as the breeding-seals, they are tied down 
to nothing, so to speak — are wholly irresponsible, and roam hither and thither as caprice and the weather may 
dictate. Thus they wear off and rub down a much larger area than the rookery-seals occupy ; wandering aimlessly, 
and going back, in some instances, notably at English bay, from one-half to a whole mile inland, not traveling 
in desultory files along winding, straggling paths, but sweeping in solid platoons, they obliterate every spear of 
grass and rub down nearly every hummock in their way. 

Definition of "holluschickie". — All the male seals, from six years of age, are compelled to herd apart by 
themselves and away from the breeding-grounds, in many cases far away; the large hauling-grounds at Southwest 
point being about two miles from the nearest rookery. This class of seals is termed "holluschickie" or the "bachelor" 
seals by the people, a most fitting and expressive appellation. 

The seals of this great subdivision are those with which the natives on the Pribylov group are the most 
familiar: naturally and especially so, since they are the only ones, with the exception of a few thousand pups, and 
occasionally an old bull or two, taken late in the fall for food and skins, which are driven up to the killing- grounds at 
the village for slaughter. The reasons for this exclusive attention to the " bachelors" are most cogent, and will be 
given hereafter when the "business" is discussed. 

Locating the hauling-grounds: Paths through the rookeries. — Since the "holluschickie" are not 
permitted by their own kind to laud on the rookeries and stop there, they have the choice of two methods of 
locating, one of which allows them to rest in the rear of the rookeries, and the other on the free beaches. The most 
notable illustration of the former can be witnessed on Eeef point, where a pathway is left for their ingress and 
egress through a rookery— a path left by common consent, as it were, between the harems. On these trails of 
passage they come and go in steady files all day and all night during the season, unmolested by the jealous 
bolls which guard the seraglios on either side as they travel; all peace and comfort to the young seal if he minds 
his business and keeps straight on up or down, without stopping to nose about right or left ; all woe and desolation 
to him, however, if he does not, for in that event he will be hterally torn in bloody griping, from limb to limb, by 
the vigilant old " see-catchie". 

Since the two and three-year old "holluschickie" come up in small squads with the first bulls in the spring, or a 
few days later, such common highways as those between the rookery-ground and the sea are traveled over before the 
arrival of the cows, and get well defined. A passage for the "bachelors", which I took much pleasure in observing 
day after day at Polavina, another at Tolstoi, and two on the Eeef, in 1872, were entirely closed up by the " see-catchie " 
and obliterated, when I again searched for them in 1874. Similar passages existed, however, on several of the 
large rookeries of St. Paul; one of those at Tolstoi exhibits this feature very finely, for here the hauling-ground 
extends around from English bay, and lies up back of the Tolstoi rookery, over a flat and rolling summit, from 100 
to 120 feet above the sea-level. The young males and yearlings of both sexes come through and between the harems, 
at the height of the breeding-season, on two of these narrow pathways, and before reaching the ground above, are 
obliged to climb up an almost abrupt bluff, which they do by following and struggling in the water-runs and washes 
that are worn into its face. As this is a large hauling-ground, on which, every favorable day during the season, 
fifteen or twenty thousand commonly rest, the sight of skillful seal-climbing can be witnessed here at any time 
during that period ; and the sight of such climbing as this of Tolstoiis exceedingly novel and interesting. Why, 
verily, they ascend over and upon places where an ordinary man might, at first sight, with great positiveness say 
that it was utterly impossible for him to climb. 



* The Russian term " holluschickie " or "bachelors" is very appropriate, and is usually employed. 



44 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Hauling-grounds on the beaches. — The other method of coming ashore, however, is the one most followed 
and favored. In this case they avoid the rookeries altogether, and repair to the unoccupied heaches between them, 
and then extend themselves out all the way hack from the sea, as far from the water, in some cases, as a quarter 
and even half of a mile. I stood on the Tolstoi sand-dunes one afternoon, toward the middle of July, and had under 
my eyes, in a straightforward sweep from my feet to Zapadnie, a million and a half of seals spread out on those 
hauling-grounds. Of these, I estimated that fully one-half, at that time, were pups, yearlings, and "holluschickie". 
The rookeries across the bay, though plainly in sight, were so crowded, that they looked exactly as I have seen 
surfaces appear upou which bees had swarmed in obedience to that din and racket made by the watchful 
apiarian, when he desires to hive the restless honey-makers. 

The great majority of yearlings and "holluschickie" are annually hauled out and packed thickly over the sand- 
beach and upland hauling-grounds, which lay between the rookeries on St. Paul island. At St. George there is 
nothing of this extensive display to be seen, for here is only a tithe of the seal-life occupying St. Paul, and no 
opportunity whatever is afforded for an amphibious parade. 

Gentleness of the seals. — Descend with me from this sand-dune elevation of Tolstoi, and walk into that 
drove of "holluschickie" below us; we can do it; you do not notice much confusion or dismay as we go in among 
them; they simply open out before us and close in behind our tracks, stirring, crowding to the right and left as we 
go, twelve or twenty feet away from us on each side. Look at this small flock of yearlings, some one, others two, 
and even three years old, which are coughing and spitting around us now, staring up at our faces in amazement as 
we walk ahead ; they struggle a few rods out of our reach, and then come together again behind us, showing no further 
sign of notice of ourselves. You could not walk into a drove of hogs, at Chicago, without exciting as much coufusion 
and arousing an infinitely more disagreeable tumult ; and as for sheep on the plains, they would stampede far quicker. 
Wild animals indeed ! You can now readily understand how easy it is for two or three men, early in the morning, to 
come where we are, turn aside from this vast herd in front of and around us two or three thousand of the best 
examples, and drive them back, up, and over to the village. That is the way they get the seals ; there is not any 
"hunting" or "chasing" or "capturing" of fur-seals on these islands. 

" Holluschickie " do not past. — While the young male seals undoubtedly have the power of going for lengthy 
intervals without food, they, like the female seals on the breeding-grounds, certainly do not maintain any long 
fasting periods on laud ; their coming and going from the shore is frequent and irregular, largely influenced by the 
exact condition of the weather from day to day ; for instance, three or four thick, foggy days seem to call them 
out from the water by hundreds of thousands upon the different hauling-grounds (which the reader observes 
recorded on my map). In some cases, I have seen them lie there so close together that scarcely a foot of ground, 
over whole acres, is bare enough to be seen ; then a clear and warmer day follows, and this seal-covered ground, 
before so thickly packed with animal life, will soon be almost deserted : comparatively so at least, to be filled up 
immediately as before, when favorable weather shall again recur. They must frequently eat when here, because 
the first yearlings and "holluschickie" that appear in the spring are no fatter, sleeker, or livelier than they are at 
the close of the season; in other words, their condition, physically, seems to be the same from the beginning to 
the end of their appearance here during the summer and fall. It is quite different, however, with the " see-catch"; 
we know how and where it spends two to three months, because we find it on the grounds at all times, day or night, 
during that period. 

Sports and pastimes of the young "bachelors". — A small flock of the young seals, one to three years 
old, generally, will often stray from these hauling-ground margins, up and beyond, over the fresh mosses and 
grasses, and there sport and play one with another, just as little puppy-dogs do; and when weary of this gamboling 
a general disposition to sleep is suddenly manifested, and they stretch themselves out and curl up in all the positions 
and all the postures that their flexible spines and ball-and-socket joints will permit. They seem to revel in the 
unwonted vegetation, and to be delighted with their own efforts in rolling down and crushing the tall stalks of 
the grasses and umbelliferous plants ; one will lie upon its back, hold up its hind-flippers, and lazily wave them 
about, while it scratches, or rather rubs, its ribs with the fore-hands alternately, the eyes being tightly closed during 
the whole performance; the sensation is evidently so luxurious that it does not wish to have any side-issue draw 
oft its blissful self-attention. Another, curled up like a cat on a rug, draws its breath, as indicated by the heaving 
of its flanks, quickly but regularly, as though in heavy sleep ; another will lie flat upon its stomach, its hind- 
flippers covered and concealed, while it tightly folds its fore-feet back against its sides, just as a fish carries its pectoral 
fins — and so on to no end of variety, according to the ground and the fancy of the animals. 

These "bachelor" seals are, I am sure, without exception, the most restless animals in the whole brute creation, 
which can boast of a high organization. They frolic and lope about over the grounds for hours, without a moment's 
cessation, and their sleep, after this, is exceedingly short, and it is ever accompanied with nervous twitchings and 
uneasy muscular movements ; they seem to be fairly brimful and overrunning with spontaneity — to be surcharged 
with fervid, electric life. 

Another marked feature which I have observed among the multitudes of "holluschickie", which have come 
under my personal observation and auditory, and one very characteristic of this class, is, that nothing like ill-humor 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 45 

appears in all of their playing together ; they never growl or bite, or show even the slightest angry feeling, but are 
invariably as happy, one with another, as can be imagined. This is a very singular trait; they lose it, however, 
with astonishing rapidity, when their ambition and strength develops and carries them, in due course of time, 
to the rookery. (See note, 39, IS.) 

The. pups and yearbngs have an especial fondness for sporting on the rocks which are just at the water's level 
and awash, so as to be covered and uncovered as the surf rolls in. On the bare summit of these wave-worn spots, 
they will struggle and clamber in groups of a dozen or two at a time throughout the whole day, in endeavoring to 
push off that one of their number which has just been fortunate enough to secure a landing; the successor has, 
however, but a brief moment of exultation in victory, for the next roller that comes booming in, together with the 
pressure by its friends, turns the table, and the game is repeated, with another seal ou top. Sometimes, as well as I 
could see, the same squad of "holluschickie" played for a whole day and night, without a moment's cessation, around 
such a rock as this, off " Kah Speel" rookery; but in this observation I may be mistaken, because the seals cannot 
be told apart. 

Seals among the breakers. — The graceful unconcern with which the fur-seal sports safely in, among, and 
under booming breakers, during the prevalence of the numerous heavy gales at the islands, has afforded me many 
consecutive hours of spell-bound attention to them, absorbed in watching their adroit evolutions within the 
foaming surf, that seemingly, every moment, would, in its fierce convulsions, dash these hardy swimmers, stunned 
and lifeless, against the iron-bound foundations of the shore, which alone checked the furious rush of the waves. 
Not at all. Through the wildest and most ungovernable mood of the roaring tempest and storm-tossed waters 
attending its transit, I never failed, on creeping out, and peering over the bluffs, in such weather, to see squads of 
these perfect watermen — the most, expert of all amphibians — gamboling in the seething, creamy wake of mighty 
rollers, which constantly broke in thunder tones over then- alert, dodging heads. The swift succeeding seas seemed, 
every instant, to poise the seals at the very verge of death. Yet the Callorhinus, exulting in his skill and strength, 
bade defiance to their wrath, and continued his diversions. 

Swimming feats of the "bachelors". — The " holluschickie" are the champion swimmers of all the seal-tribe ; 
at least, when in the water around the islands, they do nearly every fancy tumble and turn that can be executed. 
The grave old males and their matronly companions seldom indulge in any extravagant display, as do these 
youngsters, jumping out of the water like so many dolphins, describing beautiful elliptic curves sheer above 
its surface, rising three and even four feet from the sea, with the back slightly arched, the fore-flippers folded 
tightly against the sides, and the hinder ones extended and pressed together straight out behind, plumping in head 
first, to reappear in the same manner, after an interval of a few seconds of submarine swimming, bke the flight of a 
bird, on their course. Sea-lions and hair-seals never jump in this manner. (See note, 39, O.) 

All classes will invariably make these dolphin-jumps, when they are surprised or are driven into the water, 
curiously turning their heads while sailing in the air, between the "rises" and "plumps", to take a look at the cause 
of their disturbance. They all swim rapidly, with the exception of the pups, and may be said to dart under the 
water with the velocity of a bird on the wing; as they swim they are invariably submerged, running along 
horizontally about two or three feet below the surface, guiding their course with the hind-flippers as by an oar, and 
propelling themselves solely by the fore-feet, rising to breathe at intervals which are either very frequent or else 
so wide apart that it is impossible to see the speeding animal when he rises a second time. 

How loug they can remain under water without taking a fresh breath, is a problem which I had not the heart 
to solve, by instituting a series of experiments at the island ; but I am inclined to think that, if the truth were known 
in regard to their ability of going without rising to breathe, it would be considered astounding. On this point, 
however, I have no data worth discussing, but will say that, in all their swimming which I have had a chance to 
study, as they passed under the water, mirrored to my eyes from the bluff above by the whitish-colored rocks below 
the rookery waters at Great Eastern rookery, I have not been able to satisfy myself how they used their long, 
flexible hind-feet, other than as steering media. If these posterior members have any perceptible motion, it is so 
rapid that my eye is not quick enough to catch it ; but the fore-flippers, however, can be most distinctly seen, as 
they work in feathering forward and sweeping flatly back, opposed to the water, with great rapidity and energy. 
They are evidently the sole propulsive power of the fur-seal in the water, as they are its main fulcrum and lever 
combined, for progression on land. I regret that the shy nature of the hair-seal never allowed me to study its 
swimming motions, but it seems to be a general point of agreement among authorities on the Phocidw, that all 
motion in water by them arises from that power which they exert and apply with the hind-feet. So far as my 
observations on the hair-seal go, I am inclined to agree with this opinion. 

All their movements in water, whether they are traveling to some objective point or are in sport, are quick 
and joyous ; and nothing is more suggestive of intense satisfaction and pure physical comfort, than is that spectacle 
which we can see every August, a short distance out at sea from any rookery where thousands of old males and 
females are idly rolling over in the billows side by side, rubbing and scratching with their fore- and hind-flippers, 
which are here and there stuck up out of the water by their owners, like the lateen-sails of the Mediterranean 
feluccas, or, when the hind-flippers are presented, like a "cat-o'-nine tails". They sleep in the water a great deal, 
too, more than is generally supposed, showing that they do not come on land to rest — very clearly not. 



46 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Classing the " holluschickle " by age. — When the "holluschiekie" are np on land they can be readily 
separated into their several classes as to age, by the color of their coats arid size, when noted, namely, the yearlings, 
the two, three, four, and five years old males. When the yearlings, or the first class, haul out, they are dressed just 
as they were alter they shed their pup-coats and took on the second covering, during the previous year in September 
and October ; and now, as they come out in the spring and summer, one year old, the males and females cannot be 
distinguished apart, either by color or size, shape ©r action ; the yearlings of both sexes have the same steel-gray 
backs and white stomachs, and are alike in behavior and weight. 

Next year these yearling females, which are now trooping out with the youthful males on the hauling-grounds, 
will repair to the rookeries, while their male companions will be obliged to come again to this same spot. 

Shedding the hair : Stagey seaxs. — About the 15th and 20th of every August, they have become 
perceptibly "stagey", or, in other words, their hair is well under way in shedding. All classes, with the exception 
of the pups, go through this process at this time every year. The process requires about six weeks between the 
first dropping or falling out of the old over-hair, and its full substitution by the new. This takes place, as a rule, 
between August 1 and September 28. 

The fur is shed, but it is so shed that the ability of the seal to take to the water and stay there, and not be 
physically chilled or disturbed during the process of molting, is never impaired. The whole surface of these 
extensive breeding grounds, traversed over by us after the seals had gone, was literally matted with the shed 
hair aud fur. This under-fur or pelage is, however, so fine and delicate, and so much concealed and shaded by the 
coarser over-hair, that a careless eye or a superficial observer might be pardoned in failing to notice the fact of its 
dropping and renewal. 

The yearling cows retain the colors of the old coat in the new, when they shed it for the first time, and from 
that time on, year after year, as they live and grow old. The young three-year-olds and the older cows look exactly 
alike, as far as color goes, when they haul up at first and dry out on the rookeries, every June and July. 

The yearling males, however, make a radical change when they shed for the first time, for they come out from 
their "staginess" in a nearly uniform dark gray, and gray and black mixed, and lighter, with dark ocher to whitish 
on the upper and under parts, respectively. This coat, next year, when they appear as two-year-olds, shedding for 
the three-year-old coat, is a very much darker gray, and so on to the third, fourth, and fifth season; then after this, 
with age, they begin to grow more gray and brown, with rufous-ocher and whitish-tipped over-hair on the shoulders. 
Some of the very old bulls change in their declining years to a uniform shade all over of dull-grayish ocher. The 
full glory aud beauty of the seal's moustache is denied to him until he has attained his seventh or eighth year. 

Comparative size op females and males. — The female does not get her full growth and weight until the 
end of her fourth year, so far as I have observed, but she does most of her growing longitudinally in the first two ; 
after she has passed her fourth and fifth years, she weighs from 30 to 50 pounds more than she did in the days of 
her youthful maternity. 

The male does not get his full growth and weight until the close of his seventh year, but realizes most of it, 
osteologically speaking, by the end of the fifth ; and from this it may be perhaps truly inferred, that the male seals 
live to an average age of eighteen or twenty years, if undisturbed in a normal condition, and that the females 
attain ten or twelve seasons under the same favorable circumstances. Their respective weights, when fully mature 
and fat in the spring, will, in regard to the male, strike an average of from four to five hundred pounds, while the 
females will show a mean of from 70 to 80 pounds. 

I did not permit myself to fall into error in estimating this matter of weight, because I early found that 
the apparent huge bulk of a sea-lion bull or fur-seal male, when placed irpon the scales, shrank far below my 
notions: I took a great deal of pains, on several occasions, during the killing-season, to have a platform 
scale carted out into the field, and as the seals were knocked down, and before they were bled, I had them carefully 
weighed, constructing the following table from my observations : 

Table showing the weight, size, and growth of the fur-seal (Callorhinus tjrsintjs), from the pup 

to the adult, male and female. 



Length. 



weight of 
body. 



Weight of 



One "week 

Six months 

One year 

Two years 

Three years 

Four years 

Five years 

Six years 

Eight to twenty years 



Inches. 
12 to 14 



Inches. 
10 to 10J 



Pounds. 
6to7J 



A male and female, being the only ones of the class handled, June 20, 1873. 

A mean of ten examples, males and females, alike in size, November 28, 1872. 

A mean of six examples, males and females, alike in size, July 14, 1873. 

A mean of thirty examples, all males, July 24, 1S73. 

A mean of tbirty-two examines, all males, July 24, 1873. 

A mean of ten examples, all males, July 24, 1873. 

A mean of five examples, all males, July 24, 1873. 

A mean of three examples, all males, July 24, 1873. 

An estimate only, calculating on their weight when fat, and early in the season. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 47 

Weight of female seals. — The adult females •will correspond with the three years old males in the above 
table, the younger cows weighing frequently only 75 pounds, and many of the older ones going as high as 120, but 
an average of SO to 85 pounds is the rule. Those specimens of the females which I weighed were examples taken 
by me for transmission to the Smithsonian Institution, otherwise T should not have been permitted to make this 
record of their -weight, inasmuch as weighing them means to kill them ; and the law and the habit, or rather the 
prejudice of the entire community up there, is unanimously in opposition to any such proceeding, for they never touch 
females here, and never set their foot on or near the breeding-grounds on such an errand. It will be noticed, also, 
that I have no statement of the weights of these exceedingly fat and heavy males -which first appear on the breeding- 
grounds in the spring; those which I have referred to, in the table above given, were very much heavier at the 
time of their first appearance in May and June, than at the moment when they were in my hands, in July; but 
the cows, and the other classes, do not sustain protracted fasting, and therefore their weights may be considered 
substantially the same throughout the year. 

Change jn weight. — Thus, from the fact that all the young seals and females do not change much in weight 
from the time of their first coming out in the spring, till that of their leaving in the fall and early winter, I feel 
safe in saying that they feed at irregular but not long intervals, during the time that they are here under our 
observation, since they are constantly changing from land to water and from water to laud, day in and day out. I 
do not think that the young males fast longer than a week or ten days at a time, as a rule. 

Disfeesal OF THE "holltjschickie". — By the end of October and the 10th of November, the great mass of 
the "holluschickie", the trooping myriads of English bay, Southwest point, Beef parade, Lukannon sands, the table, 
lands of Polavina, and the mighty hosts of Novastoshnab, at St. Paul, together with the quota of St. George, had 
taken their departure from its shores, and had gone out to sea, spreading with the receding schools of fish that were 
now returning to the deep waters of the North Pacific, where, in that vast expanse, over which rolls an unbroken 
billow, 5,000 miles from Japan to Oregon, they spend the winter and the early spring, until they reappear and 
break up, with their exuberant life, the dreary winter-isolation of the land which gave them birth. 

Taste of the seals in the jiattee of weathee. — A few stragglers remain, however, as late as the snow 
and ice will permit them to, in and after December ; they are all down by the water's edge then, and haul up 
entirely on the rocky beaches, deserting the sand altogether; but the first snow that falls makes them very uneasy, 
and I have seen a large hauling-ground so disturbed by a rainy day and night, that its hundreds of thousands of 
occupants fairly deserted it. The fur-seal cannot bear, and will not endure, the spattering of sand into its eyes, 
which alwajs accompanies the driving of a rain-storm; they take to the water, to reappear when the nuisance 
shall be abated. 

The weather in which the fur-seal delights is cool, moist, foggy, and thick enough to keep the sun always 
obscured, so as to cast no shadows. Such weather, which is the normal weather of St. Paul and St. George, 
continued for a few weeks in June and July, brings up from the sea millions of fur-seals. But, as I have before 
said, a little sunshine, which raises the temperature as high as 50° to 55° Fahr., will send them back from the 
hauliug-grounds almost as quickly as they came. Fortunately, these warm, sunny days on the Pribylov islands are 
so rare that the seals certainly can have no ground of complaint, even if we may presume they have any at all. 
Some curious facts in regard to their selection of certain localities on these islands, and their abandonment of others, 
I will discuss in a succeeding chapter, descriptive of the rookeries ; this chapter is illustrated by topographical 
surveys made by myself. 

Albinos. — I looked everywhere and constantly, when treading my way over acres of ground which were 
fairly covered with seal-pups, and older ones, for specimens that presented some abnormity, that is, monstrosities, 
albinos, etc., such as I have seen in our great herds of stock ; but I was, with one or two exceptions, unable to note 
anything of the kind. I have never seen any malformations or "monsters" among the pups and other classes of 
the fur-seals, nor have the natives recorded anything of the kind, so far as I could ascertain from them. I saw 
only three albino pups among the multitudes on St. Paul, and none on St. George. They did not differ, in any 
respect, from the normal pups in size and shape. Their hair, for the first coat, was a dull ocher all over ; the fur 
whitish, changing to a rich brown, the normal hue; the flippers and muzzle were a pinkish flesh-tone in color, and 
the iris of the eye sky-blue. When they shed the following year, they are said to have a dirty, yellowish -white 
color, which makes them exceedingly conspicuous when mixed in among a vast majority of black pups, gray 
yearlings, and " holluschickie" of their kind. (See note, 39, O.) 

Where do the seals die ? — It is perfectly evident that a large percentage of this immense number of seals 
must die every year from natural limitation of life. They do not die on these islands ; that much I am certain of. 
Not one dying a natural death could I find or hear of on the grounds ; they evidently lose their lives at sea, 
preferring to sink with the rigor mortis into the cold, blue depths of the great Pacific, or beneath the green waves 
of Bering sea, rather than to encumber and disfigure their summer hauuts on the Pribylov islands. 



48 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

11. DESCRIPTION OF THE FUR-SEAL ROOKEEIES OF ST. PAUL AND ST. GEOEGE. 

Dearth of information concerning the facts about the rookeries. — Before I can intelligently 
and clearly present an accurate estimate of the aggregate number of fur-seals which appear upon those great 
breeding-grounds of the Pribylov group every season, I must take up, in regular sequence, my surveys of these 
remarkable rookeries which I have illustrated in this memoir by the accompanying sketch-maps, showing 
topographically the superficial area and distribution assumed by the seal-life at each locality. 

It will be observed, that the sum total on St. Paul island preponderates, and completely overshadows that 
which is represented at St. George. Before passing to the detailed discussion of each rookery, it is well to call 
attention to a few salient features in regard to the present appearance of the seals on these breeding-grouuds, which 
latter are of their own selection. Touching the location of the fur-seals to-day, as I have recorded and surveyed it, 
compared with their distribution in early times, I am sorry to say that there is not a single line on a chart, or a 
word printed in a book, or a note made iu manuscript, which refers to this all-important subject, prior to my own 
work, which I present herewith for the first time to the public. The absence of definite information in regard to 
what I conceive to be of vital interest and importance to the whole business, astonished me ; I could not at first 
believe it; and, for the last four or five years, I have been searching among the archives of the old Russian 
company, as I searched diligently when up there, and elsewhere in the territory of Alaska, for some evidence in 
contradiction of this statement which I have just made. I wanted to find — I hoped to discover — some old record, 
some clue, by which I could measure with authority and entire satisfaction to my own mind, the relative volume of 
seal life in the past, as compared with that which I record in the present, but was disappointed. 

I am unable, throughout the whole of the following discussion, to cite a single reliable statement which can 
give any idea as to the condition and numbers of the fur-seal on these islands, when they were discovered in 17S6-'87, 
or during the whole time of their occupation since, up to the date of my arrival. I mark this so conspicuously, 
for it is certainly a very strange oversight, a kind of neglect, which, in my opinion, has been, to say the least, 
inexcusable. 

Russian records. — In attempting to form an approximate conception of what the seals were or might 
have been in those early days, as they spread themselves over the hauling- and breeding-grounds of these remarkable 
islands, I have been thrown entirely upon the vague statements given to me by the natives and one or two of the 
first American pioneers in Alaska. The only Russian record which touches ever so lightly upon the subject* 
contains the remarkable statement, which is, in the light of my surveys, simply ridiculous now, that is, that the 
number of fur-seals on St. George during the first years of Russian occupation, was nearly as great as that on St. 
Paul. The most superficial examination of the geological character portrayed on the accompanying maps of 
these two islands, will satisfy any unprejudiced mind as to the total error of such a statement. Why, a mere tithe only 
of the multitudes which repair to St. Paul, in perfect comfort, over the sixteen to twenty miles of splendid landing- 
ground found thereon, could visit St. George, when all of the coast-line fit for their reception at this island, is 
a scant two and a half miles; but for that matter there was, at the time of my arrival and in the beginning of my 
investigation, a score of equally wild and incredible legends afloat in regard to the rookeries on St. Paul and St. 
George. Finding, therefore, that the whole work must be undertaken de novo, I set about it without further delay. 

Immense mortality of the seals in 1836.— Prior to the year 1835, no native on the islands seemed to 
have any direct knowledge or was acquainted with a legendary tradition even, in relation to the seals, concerning 
their area and distribution on the land here ; but they all chimed in after that date with great unanimity, saying 
that the winter preceding this season (1835-'36) was one of frightful severity; that many of their ancestors who had 
lived on these islands in large barraboras just back of the Black bluffs, near the present village, and at Polavina, 
then perished miserably. 

They say that the cold continued far into the summer; that immense masses of clearer and stronger ice- 
floes than had ever been known to the waters about the islands, or were ever seen since, were brought down and 

* Veniarninov : Zapieskic of Oonalashkenskako Otdayla, 2 vols., St. Petersburg, 1842. This work of Bishop Innocent Veniaminov is 
the only one which the Russians can lay claim to as exhibiting anything like a history of -western Alaska, or of giving a sketch of its 
inhabitants and resources, that has the least merit of truth, or the faintest stamp of reliability. Without it w» should be simply in the 
dark as to much of what the Russians were about during the whole period of their occupation aud possession of that country. He served, 
chiefly as a priest and missionary, for 25 years, from 1814 to 1839, at Oonalashka, having the seal-islands in his parish, and was made bishop 
of all Alaska. He was soon after recalled to Russia, where he has since become the primate of the national church, ranking second to no 
man in the empire, save the czar ; he is advanced in years, being now more than 90 years of age. He must have been a man of fine personal 
appearance, judging from the following description of him, noted by Sir George Simpson, who met him at Sitka, in 1842, just as he was 
about to embark for Russia: " His appearance, to which I have already alluded, impresses a stranger with something of awe, while in 
further intercourse, the gentleness which characterizes his every word and deed,- insensibly molds reverence into love ; and, at the same 
time, his talents and attainments are such as to be worthy of his exalted station. With all this, the bishop is sufficiently a man of the 
world to disdain anything like cant. His conversation, on the contrary, teems with amusement and instruction, and his company is 
much prized by all who have the honor of his acquaintance." Such is the portrait drawn of him by a governor of the Hudson's Bay 
Company. 







ST PAUL. 

Prvbilov Group: Bering Spa: Alaska. 

Surveyed and drawn April 1873 - July 1871- 

Vy 

Henry W, Elliott 



*' J ' :; "" <„;,/■- 




S\ Oiler I' 1 



PROFILE of SOUTH S1ID1U-: 



cial-areaof S' Paul 33 sq. m. 42 m. shore line ( I6H ofvrliidi Seal yrcnn&.j 

Reef Point J 7,' 08,' 001 X Lat, 170,' 12.' 00," V Long 

S.W „ 57," LI,' 12; K Lat 17o; 19! 03," W Long. 

N E. , 57.' 10.' 1. B Lai 170(H) 02; W Long 

Otter 1 57." 03:oo: B Lat. 170,* 10.' 00 f W Long 

Walrus I. 37," li;05; N I. .0 169, 10 ' 05,' W Long 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 49 

shoved high up on to all the rookery-margins, forming an icy wall completely around the island, looming up 20 to 
30 feet above the surf; they further state that this wall did not melt or in any way disappear until the middle or 
end of August, 1836. 

They affirm that for this reason the fur-seals, when they attempted to land, according to their habit and their 
necessity, during June and July, were unable to do so in any considerable numbers. The females were compelled 
to bring forth their young in the water and at the wet, storm beaten surf-margins, which caused multitudes of the 
mothers and all of the young to perish. In short, the result was a virtual annihilation of the breeding-seals. Hence, 
at the following season, only a spectral, a shadowy imitation of past times could be observed upon the seal-grounds 
of St. Paul and St. George. 

On the Lagoon rookery, now opposite the village of St. Paul, there were then only two males, with a 
uumber of cows. At Nan Speel, close by and right under the village, there were then only some 2,000; this the 
natives know because they counted them. On Zapaduie there were about 1,000 cows, bulls, and pups; at Southwest 
point there were none. Two small rookeries were then on the north shore of St. Paul, near a place called 
"Maroonitch"; and there were seven small rookeries running round Northeast point, but on all of these there were 
only 1,500 males, females, and young; and this number includes the "hollusekickie", which, in those days, lay in 
among the breeding-seals, there being so few old males that they were gladly permitted to do so. On Polaviua 
there were then about 500 cows, bulls, pups, and "holluschickie"; on Lukannon and Keetavie about 300; but on 
Keetavie there were only ten bulls and so few young males lying in altogether, that these old natives, as they told 
me, took no note of them on the rookeries just cited. On the Reef, in Gorbotch, were about 1,000 only; in this 
number last mentioned some 800 "holluschickie" may be included, which lay in with the breeding-seals. There 
were only twenty old bulls on Gorbotch, and about ten old males on the Reef. The village was placed on its present 
site ten years prior to this period of 1S35-'3G. 

Such, briefly and succinctly, is the sum and the substance of all information which I could gather prior to 
1S35-36; and while I do not entirely credit these statements, yet the earnest, straightforward agreement of the 
natives has impressed me so that I narrate it here. It certainly seems as though this enumeration of the old 
Aleuts was painfully short. 

Then, again, with regard to the probable truth of the foregoing statement of the natives, perhaps I should call 
attention to the fact that the entire sum of seal-life in 1S3G, as given by them, is just 4,100, of all classes, distributed 
as I have indicated above. Now, on turning to Bishop Yeniaminov, by whom was published the only 
statement of any kind in regard to the killing on these .islands from 1817 to 1837, the year when he finished his 
work,* I find that he makes a record of slaughter of seals in the year 183G, of 4,052, which were killed and 
taken for their skins ; but if the natives' statements are right, then-only 50 seals were left on the island for 1837, in 
which year, however, 4,220 were again killed, according to the bishop's table, according to which there was also a 
steady increase in the size of this return from that date along up to 1S50, when the Russians governed their catch 
by the market alone, always having more seals than they knew what to do with. 

Again, in this connection, the natives say that until 1847, the practice on these islands was to kill indiscriminately 
both females and males for skins; but after this year, 1847, the strict respect now paid to the breeding-seals, 
and exemption of all females, was enforced for the first time, and has continued up to date. 

Thus it will be seen that there is, frankly stated, nothing to guide to afair or even an approximate estimate as to 
the numbers of the fur-seals on these two islands, prior to my labor. 

Mankeu of computing the number of seals. — After a careful study of the subject, during three entire 
consecutive seasons, and a confirmatory review of it in 1876, I feel confident that the following figures and surveys 
will, upon their own face, speak authoritatively as to their truthful character. 

At the close of my investigation, during the first season of my labor on the ground, in 1S72, the fact became 
evident that the breeding-seals obeyed implicitly an imperative and instinctive natural law of distribution; a law 
recognized by each and every seal upon the rookeries, prompted by a fine consciousness of necessity to its own 
well-being. The. breeding-grounds occupied by them were, therefore, invariably covered by the seals in exact 
ratio, greater or less, as the area upon which they rested was larger or smaller. They always covered the ground 
evenly, never crowding in at one place here, to scatter out there. The seals lie just as thickly together, where the 
rookery is boundless in its eligible area to their rear and unoccupied by them, as they do in the little strips which 
are abruptly cut off and narrowed by rocky walls behind. For instance, on a rod of ground, under the face of 
bluffs which hemmed it in to the land from the sea, there are just as many seals, no more and no less, as will be 
found on any other rod of rookery-ground throughout the whole list, great and small ; always exactly so many seals, 
under any and all circumstances, to a given area of breeding-ground. There are just as many cows, bulls, and 
pups on a square rod at Nab Speel, near fhe village, where, in 1874, all told, there were only seven or eight thousand, 
as there are on any square rod at Northeast point, where a million of them congregate. 

This fact being determined, it is evident that, just in proportion as the breeding-grounds of the fur-seal on 
these islands expand or contract in area iroin their present dimensions, the seals will increase or diminish in 
number. 



' Zapieskie oi' Oonalaehkeuakaho Otdayla, St. Peteitsburg, 1842. 



50 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The discovery, at the close of the season of 1872, of this law of distribution, gave me at once the clue I was 
searching for, in order to take steps by which I could arrive at a sound conclusion as to the entire number of 
seals herding on the island. 

I noticed, and time has confirmed my observation, that the period for taking these boundaries of the rookeries, 
so as to show this exact margin of expansion at the week of its greatest volume, or when they are as full as they 
are to be for the season, is between the 10th and 20th of Jaly every year; not a day earlier, and not many days 
later. After the 20th of July the regular system of compact, even organization breaks up. The seals then scatter 
out in pods or clusters, the pups leading the way, straying far back — the same number instantly covering twice 
and thrice as much ground as they did the day or week before, when they lay in solid masses and were marshaled 
on the rookery-ground proper. 

There is no more difficulty in surveying these seal-margins during this week or ten days in July, than there 
is in drawing sights along and around the curbs of a stone-fence surrounding a field. The breeding-seals remain 
perfectly quiet under your eyes all over the rookery, and almost within your touch, everywhere on the outside of 
their territory that you may stand or walk. The margins of massed life, as I have indicated on the topographical 
surveys of these breeding-grounds of St. Paul and St. George, are as clean cut and as well defined against the sod 
and vegetation, as is the shading on my maps. There is not the least difficulty in making the surveys, and in 
making them correctly. 

Now, with a knowledge of the superficial area of these breeding-grounds, the way is clearly open to a very 
interesting calculation as to the number of fur-seals upon them. I am well aware of the fact, when I enter 
upon this discussion, that I cannot claim perfect accuracy, but, as shadowing my plan of thought and method of 
computation, I propose to present every step in the processes which have guided me to the result. 

Rookery-space occupied by single seals. — When the adult males and females, fifteen or twe nty of the 
latter to every one of the former, have arrived upon the rookery, I think an area a little less than twofsquare lfeet 
for each female may be considered as the superficial space required by each animal with regard to its size and 
in obedience to its habits ; and this limit may safely be said to be over the mark. Now, every female, or cow, 
on this twojsquare lfeet space, doubles herself by bringing forth her young ; and in a few days or a week, perhaps, 
after its birth, the cow takes to the water to wash and feed, and is not back on this allotted space one-fourth of 
the time again during the season. In this way, is it not clear that the females almost double their number on the 
rookery-grounds, without causing the expansion of the same beyond the limits that would be actually required, did 
they not bear any young at all? For every 100,000 breeding-seals, there will be found more than 85,000 females, 
and less than 15,000 males; and in a few weeks after the landing of these females, they will show for themselves; 
that is, for this 100,000, fully 180,000 males, females, and young instead, on the same area of ground occupied 
previously to the birth of the pups. 

It must be borne in mind, that perhaps 10 or 12 per cent, of the entire number of females were yearlings last 
season, and come up on to these breeding-grounds as virgins for the first time during this season — as two-year 
old cows; they of course bear no young. 

The males being treble and quadruple the physical bulk of the females, require about four feet square for their 
u§e of this same rookery-ground, but as they are less than one-fifteenth the number of the females, much less, in 
fact, they therefore occupy only one-eighth of the space over the breeding-ground, where we have located the 
supposed 100,000 ; this surplus area of the males is also more than balanced and equalized by the 15,000 or 20,000 
virgin females which come on to this rookery for the first time to meet the males. They come, rest a few days or a 
week, and retire, leaving no young to show their presence on the ground. 

Taking all these points into consideration, and they are features of fact, T quite safely calculate upon an average 
of two square feet to every animal, big and little, on the breeding-grounds, as the initial point upon which to base 
an intelligent computation of the entire number of seals before us. Without following' this system of enumeration, 
a person may look over these swarming myriads between Southwest point and Novastoshnah, guessing vaguely and 
wildly, at any figure from one million up to ten or twelve millions, as has been done repeatedly. How few people 
know what a million really is ; it is very easy to talk of a million, but it is a tedious task to count it off, and makes 
one's statements as to "millions" decidedly more conservative after the labor has been accomplished. 

Eeview op the rookeries op St. Paul. — Before summing up the grand total, I shall now, in sequence, 
review each one of the several rookeries of St. Paul, taking them in their order as they occur, going north from the 
Peef point. The accompanying maps show the exact area occupied by the breeding-seals and their young in the 
season of 1874, which is the date of my latest field-work on the Pribylov islands. 

The Peep rookery. — By reference first to the general map, it will be observed that this large breeding- 
ground, on that grotesquely-shaped neck which ends in the Peef point, is directly contiguous to the village — indeed, 
it may be fairly said to be right under the lee of the houses on the hill. It is one of the most striking of all the 
rookeries, owing probably to the fact that on every side it is sharply and clearly exposed to the vision, as the 
circuit is made in boats. A reach of very beautiful drifting sand, a quarter of a mile from the village hill to the Peef 
bluffs, separates the breeding-grounds proper from the habitations of the people. These Zoltoi sands are, however, 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



51 



a famous rendezvous for the " holluschickie ", and from them, during the season, the natives make regular drives, 
having only to step out from their houses iu the morning and walk but a few rods to find their fur-bearing quarry. 

Passing over the sands on our way down 
to the point, we quickly come to a basaltic 
ridge or back-bone, over which the sand has 
been rifted by the winds, and which supports 
a rank and luxuriant growth of the Elymus 
and other grasses, with beautiful flowers. A 
few hundred feet farther along our course 
brings us in full view, as we look to the south, 
of one of the most entrancing spectacles which 
seals afford to man. We look down upon and 
along a grand promenade-ground, whichslopes 
gently to the eastward, and trends south- 
ward down to the water from the abrupt walls 
bordering on the sea on the west, over a 
parade-plateau as smooth as the floor of a ball- 
room, 2,000 feet in length, from 500 to 1,000 
feet in width, over which multitudes of "hol- 
luschickie" are filing in long strings, or de- 
ploying in vast platoons, hundreds abreast, in 
an unceasing march and countermarch; the 
breath which rises into the cold air from a 
hundred thousand hot throats hangs like 
clouds of white steam in the, gray fog itself; 
indeed, it may be said to be a seal-fog peculiar 
to the spot, while the din, the roar arising 
over all, defies our description. 

We notice to our right and to our left, the 
immense solid masses of the breeding-seals at 
Gorbotch, and those stretching and trending 
around nearly a mile from our feet, far around to the Eeef point below and opposite the parade-ground, with here 
and there a neutral passage left open for the "holluschickie" to go down and come up from the waves. 

The adaptation of this ground of the Keef rookery to the requirements of the seal is perfect. It so lies that it 
falls gently from its high Zoltoi bay-margin on the west to the sea on the east ; and upon its broad expanse not a 
solitary puddle of mud-spotting is to be seen, though everything is reeking with moisture, and the fog even dissolves 
into rain as we view the scene. Every trace of vegetation upon this parade has been obliterated ; a few tufts of 
grass, capping the summits of those rocky hillocks, indicated on the eastern and middle slope, are the only signs of 
botanical life which the seals have suffered to remain. 

A small rock, "Seevitchie Kammin," five or six hundred feet right to the southward and out at sea, is also 
covered with the black and yellow forms of fur-seals and sea- lions. It is environed by shoal-reefs, rough, and kelp- 
grown, which navigators prudently avoid. 

This rookery of the Reef proper has 4,010 feet of sea-margin, with an average depth of 150 feet, making ground 
for 301,000 breeding-seals and their young. Gorbotch rookery has 3,GG0 feet of sea-margin, with an average depth 
of 1(10 feet, making ground lor 183,000 breeding-seals and their young; an aggregate for this great Eeef rookery of 
484,000 breeding-seals and their young. Heavy as this enumeration is, yet the aggregate only makes the Eeef 
rookery third iu importance, compared with the others which we are yet to describe. 

Lagoon kookeey. — We now pass from the Eeef up to the village, where one naturally would not expect to 
find breeding-seals within less than a pistol-shot from the natives' houses; but it is a fact, nevertheless, for on 
looking at the sketch map of the Lagoon rookery herewith presented, it will be noticed that I have located a little 
gathering of breeding-seals right under the village hill to the westward of that place called "Xah Speel". This is 
in itself an insignificant rookery and never has been a large one, though it is one of the oldest on the island. It 
is only interesting, however, superficially so, on account of its position, and the fact that through every day of the 
season half the population of the entire village go and come, to the summit of the bluff', which overhangs it, where 
they peer down for hours at a time upon the methods and evolutions of the "kautickie" below, the seals themselves 
looking up with intelligent appreciation of the fact that, though they are in the hands of man, yet he is wise enough 
not to disturb them there as they rest. 

If at Nab Speel, or that poiut rounding into the village cove, there were any suitable ground for a rookery to 
grow upon or spread over, the seals would doubtless has^e been there long ago. There are, however, no such 
natural advantages offered them ; what there is they have availed themselves of. 




52 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 




, LAGO ON RY 

N Scale. 




Looking from the village across the cove and down upon the Lagoon, still another strange contradiction 
appears— at least it seems a natural contradiction to one's usual ideas. Here we see the Lagoon rookery, a 

reach of ground upon which some twenty-five or thirty 
thousand breeding-seals come out regularly every year 
during the appointed time, and go through their whole 
elaborate system of reproduction, without showing the 
slightest coucern for or attention to the scene directly 
east of them and across that shallow slough not forty 
feet in width. There are the great slaughtering fields 
of St. Paul island; there are the sand -flats where every 
seal has been slaughtered for years upon years back, 
for its skin; and even as we take this uote, forty men 
are standing there knocking down a drove of two or 
three thousand "holluschickie" for the day's work, 
and as they labor, the whacking of their clubs aud the 
sound of their voices must be as plain to those breeding- 
seals, which are not one hundred feet from them, as it is 
to us, a quarter of a mile distant ! In addition to this 
enumeration of disturbances, well calculated to amaze, 
and dismay, aud drive off every seal within its influence, 
are the decaying bodies of the last year's catch — 75,000 
or 85,000 uuburied carcasses — that are sloughing away 
into the sand, which two or three seasons from now, nature will, in its infinite charity, cover with the greenest of 
all green grasses. The whitened bones and grinning skulls of over 3,000,000 seals have bleached out on that 
Slaughtering- spot, and ai-e buried below its surface now. 

Directly under the north face of the Village Hill, where it falls to the narrow flat between its feet and the 
Cove, the natives have sunk a well. It was excavated in 1857, they say, and subsequently deepened to its present 
condition, in 1868. It is twelve feet deep, aud the diggers said that they found boues of the sea-lion and fur-seal 
thickly distributed every foot down, from top to bottom; how much lower these osteological remains of prehistoric 
pinnipeds can be found, no one knows as yet; the water here, on that account, has never been fit to drink, or even 
to cook with; but being soft, was aud is used by the natives for washing clothes, etc. Most likely, it records 
the spot where the Eussians, during the heydays of their early occupation, drove the unhappy visitors of Nah 
Speel to slaughter. There is no Golgotha known to man elsewhere in the world as extensive as this one of St. 
Paul. 

Yet, the natives say that this Lagoon rookery is a new feature in the distribution of the seals ; that when the 
people first came there aud located a part of the present village, in 1824 up to 1847, there never had been a 
breeding seal on that Lagoon rookery of to-day ; so they have hauled up here from a small beginning, not very long 
ago, until they have attained their present numerical expansion, in spite of all these exhibitions of butchery of their 
kind, executed right under their eyes, and in full knowledge of their nostrils, while the groans and low moaniugs of 
their stricken species stretched out beneath the clubs of the sealers, must have been far plainer in their ears than 
they are in our own. 

Still they come — they multiply, and they increase — knowing so well that they belong to a class which intelligent 
men never did molest ; to-day at least they must know it, or they would not submit to these manifestations which 
we have just cited, so close to their knowledge. 

The Lagoon rookery, however, never can be a large one on account of the very nature of the ground selected 
by the seals ; for it is a bar simply pushed up above the surf-wash of bowlders, water-worn and rounded, which has 
almost inclosed and cut out the Lagoon from its parent sea. In my opinion, the time is not far distant when that 
estuary will be another inland lake of St. Paul, walled out from salt water and freshened by rain and melting snow, 
as are the other pools, lakes, and lakelets on the island. 

Lukannon and Keetavie eookeries. — The next rookeries in order can be found at Lukannon and Keetavie. 
Here is a joint blending of two large breeding-grounds, their continuity broken by a short reach of sea-wall right 
under and at the eastern foot of Lukannon hill. The appearance of these rookeries is like all the others, peculiar 
to themselves. There is a rounded, swelling hill, at the foot of Lukannon bay, which rises perhaps 100 or 170 feet 
from the sea, abruptly at the point, but swelling out, gently up from the sand-dunes in Lukannon bay, to its summit 
at the northwest and south. The great rookery rests upon the northern slope. Here is a beautiful adaptation of 
the finest drainage, with a profusion of those rocky nodules scattered everywhere over it, upon which the females 
so delight in resting. 

Standing on the bald summit of Lukannon hill, we turn to the south, and look over Keetavie point, where 
another large aggregate of breeding- seals rests under our eye. The hill falls away into a series of faintly terraced 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



53 



tables, which drop down to a flat that again abruptly descends to the sea at Keetavie point. Between ns and the 
Keetavie rookery is the parade-ground of Lukannon, a sight almost as grand as is that on the Eeef which we 
have feebly attempted to portray. The 
sand-dunes to the west and to the 
north are covered with the most lux- 
uriant grass, abruptly emarginated by 
the sharp abrasion of the hauling-seals : 
this is shown very clearly on the gen- 
eral map. Keetavie point is a solid 
basaltic shelf. Lukannon hill, the 
summit of it, is composed of volcanic 
tufa and cement, with irregular cubes 
and fragments of pure basalt scattered 
all over its flipper-worn slopes. Lu- 
kannon proper has 2,270 feet of sea- 
margin, with an average depth of 150 
feet, making ground for 170,000 breed- 
ing seals and their young. Keetavie 
rookery has 2,200 feet of sea-margin, 
with an average depth of 150 feet, mak- 
ing ground for 105,000 breeding-seals 
and their young, a whole aggregate of 
335,000 breeding-seals and their young. 
This is the point, down along the flat 
shoals of Lukannon bay, where the 
sand dunes are most characteristic, as 
they rise in their wind-whirled forms 
just above the surf- wash. This also is 
where the natives come from the vil- 
lage during the early mornings of the 
season, for driving, to get any number 
of "holluschickie". 

It is a beautiful sight, glancing 
from the summit of this great rookery- 
hill, up to the north over that low reach of the coast to Tonkie Mees, where the waves seem to roll in with crests 
that rise in unbroken ridges for a mile in length each, ere they break so grandly and uniformly on the beach. In 
these rollers the "holluschickie" are playing like sea-birds, seeming to sport the most joyously at the very moment 
when the heavy billow breaks and falls upon them. 

Tolstoi rookery. — Directly to the west from Lukannon, up along and around the head of the Lagoon, is the 
seal-path road over which the natives bring the "hollus- 
chickie" from Tolstoi. We follow this and take up our 
position on several lofty grass-grown dunes, close to 
and overlooking another rookery of great size; this is 
Tolstoi. 

We have here the greatest hill-slope of breeding- 
seals, on either island, peculiarly massed on the abruptly 
sloping flanks of Tolstoi ridge, as it falls to the sands 
of English bay, and ends suddenly in the precipitous 
termination of its own name, Tolstoi point. Here the 
seals are in some places crowded up to the enormous 
depth of 500 measured feet, from the sea-margin of the 
rookery to its outer boundary and limitation; and, when 
viewed as I viewed it iu July, taking the angles and 
lines shown on the accompanying sketch-map, I con- 
sidered it, with the bluffs terminating it at the south, 
and its bold sweep, which ends on the sands of English 
bay, to be the most picturesque, though it is not the 
most impressive, rookery on the island — especially when 
that parade-ground, lying just back and over the point and upon its table-rock surface, is reached by the climbing 
seals. 





54 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 




SS'ii. PARADE GROUND 



If the observer will glance at tlie map, he will see that the parade-ground in question lies directly over and 
about 150 feet above, the breeding-seals immediately under it. The sand-dune tracts which border the great 
body of the rookery seem to check the "holluschickie" from hauling to the rear, for sand drifts here, in a locality so 
high and exposed to the full force of the wind, with more rapidity and consequently more disagreeable energy to 
the seals than anywhere else on the island. 

A comical feature of this rookery is the appearance of the foxes in the chinks under the parade-ground and 
interstices of the cliffs; their melancholy barking and short yelps of astonishment, as we walk about, contrast quite 
sensibly with the utter indifference of the seals to our presence. 

From Tolstoi at this point, sweeping around three miles to Zapadnie, is the broad sand-reach of -English bay, 
upon which and back over its gently rising flats are the great hauling-grounds of the "holluschickie", which I have 
indicated on the general map. and to which I made reference in a previous section of this chapter. Looking at the 
myriads of "bachelor seals" spread out in their restless hundreds and hundreds of thousands upon this ground, one 
feels the utter impotencj T of verbal description, and reluctantly shuts his note- and sketch-books to gaze upon 
it with renewed fascination and perfect helplessness. 

Tolstoi rookery has attained, I think, its utmost limit of expansion. The seals have already pushed themselves 
as far out upon the sand at the north as they can or are willing to go, while the abrupt cliffs, hanging over more 
than one-half of the sea-margin, shut out all access to the rear for the breeding-seals. The natives said that 
this rookery had increased very much during the last four or five years prior to the date of my making the 
accompanying survey. If it continues to increase, the fact can be instantly noted, by checking off the ground and 
comparing it with the sketch-map herewith presented. Tolstoi rookery r has 3,000 feet of sea-margin, with an average 
depth of 1.50 feet, making ground for 225,000 breeding-seals and their young. 

Zapadnie rookery. — From Tolstoi, before going north, we turn our attention directly to Zapadnie on the west, 
a Mttle over two miles as the crow flies, across English bay, which lies between them. Here again we find another 

magnificent rookery, with features 
peculiar to itself, consisting of great 
wings separating, one from the other, 
by a short stretch of five or six 
hundred feet of the shunned sand- 
reach which makes a landing and a 
beach just between them . The north- 
ern Zapadnie lies mostly on the gently 
sloping, but exceedingly rocky, flats 
of a rough volcanic ridge which drops 
there to the sea ; it, too, has an ap- 
proximation to the Tolstoi depth, but 
not to such a solid extent ; it is the 
one rookery which I have reason to 
believe has sensibly increased since 
my first survey in 1872. It has over- 
flowed from the boundary which I 
laid down at that time, and has filled 
up for nearly half a mile, a long rib- 
bon-like strip of breeding-ground to 
the northeast from the hill-slope, end- 
ing at a point where a few detached 
rocks jut out, and the sand takes 
exclusive possession of the rest of 
the coast. These rocks aforesaid are 
called by the natives "!Nearhpahskie 
kammin", because it is a favorite 
resort for the hair-seals. Although 
this extension of a very decided mar- 
gin of breeding-ground, over half a 
mile in length, between 1872 and 
187G, does not, in the aggregate, 
point to a very large increased number, still it is a gratifying evidence that the rookeries, instead of tending to 
diminish in the slighest, are more than holding their own. 

Zapadnie, in itself, is something like the Eeef plateau on its eastern face, for it slopes up gradually and gently 
to the parade-plateau on top — a parade-ground not so smooth, however, being very rough and rocky, but which the 






WfcAt 



Old Cemetery I^Aigj T tS| 



Zcrr curd, flaZ 




OKERY 




PARADE PLATE.AU 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



55 



seals enjoy. Just around the point, a low reach of rocky bar and beach connects it with the ridge-walls of South- 
west point : a very small breeding-rookery, so small that it is not worthy of a survey, is located here ; I think, 
probably, on account of the nature of the ground, that it will never hold its own, and is more than hkely abandoned 
by this time. 

One of the prehistoric villages, the village of Pribylov's time, was established here between the point and 
the cemetery ridge, on which the northern wing of Zapadnie rests. The old burying-grounrl, with its characteristic 
Eussiau crosses and faded pictures of the saints, is plainly marked on the ridge. It was at this little bight of sandy 
lauding that Pribylov's men first came ashore and took possession of the island, while others in the same season 
proceeded to Northeast point and to the north shore, to establish settlements of their own order. When the 
indiscriminate scaling of 18G8 was in progress, one of the parties lived here, and a salt-house which was then 
erected by them still stands; it is in a very fair state of preservation, although it has never been since occupied, 
except by the natives who come over here from the village in the summer to pick the berries of the Empctrum and 
Bubus, which abound in the greatest profusion around the rough and rocky flats that environ the little adjacent lake. 
The young people of St. Paul are very fond of this berry-festival, so-called among themselves, and they stay here 
every August, camping out, a week or ten days at a time, before returning to their homes in the village. 

Zapadnie rookery has, the two wings included, 5,880 feet of sea-margin, with an average depth of 150 feet, 
making ground for 141,000 breeding-seals and their young, behig the second rookery on the island as to size and 
importance. 

The "holluschickie" that sport here on the parade-plateau, and iudeed over all of the western extent of the 
English bay hauling-grounds, have never been visited by the natives for the purpose of selecting killing drives since 
1872, inasmuch as more seals than were wanted have always been procured from Zoltoi, Lukaunon, and Lower Tolstoi 
points, which are all very close to the village. I have been told, since making this survey, that during the past 
year the breeding-seals of Zapadnie have overflowed, so as to occupy all of the sand-strip which is vacant between 
them on the accompanying map. 

Polavina rookery. — Half-way between the village and Northeast point lies Polavina, another one of the 
seven large breeding-grounds on this island. The conspicuous cone-shaped head of Polavina Sopka rises clearly 
cut and smooth from the plateau at its base, 
which falls two miles to the eastward and 
southeastward, sharp off iuto the sea, present- 
ing a bluff margin over a mile in length, at the 
base of which the sea thunders incessantly. It 
exhibits a very beautiful geological section of 
the simple structure of St. Paul. The riuging, 
irou-like basaltic foundations of the island are 
here setting boldly up from the sea to a height 
of 10 or 50 feet — black and purplish-red, pol- 
ished like ebony by the friction of the surf, and 
worn by its agency into grotesque arches, tiny 
caverns, and deep fissures. Surmounting this 
lava-bed is a cap of ferruginous cement and 
tufa from three to ten feet in thickness, making 
a reddish floor, upon which the seals patter in 
their restless, never-ceasing, evolutions, sleep- 
ing or waking, on the land. It is as great a 
single parade-plateau of polished cement as 
that of the Eeef, but we are unable from any 
point of observation to appreciate it, inasmuch 
as we cannot stand high enough to overlook it, 
unless we ascend Polavina Sopka, and then the 
distances, with the perspective fore-shortening, 
destroy the effect. 

The rookery itself occupies only a small 
portion of the seal-visited area at this spot. 
It is placed at the southern terminatiou, and 
gentle sloping of the long reach of bluff wall, 
which is the only cliff between Lukannon and 
Novastoshnah. It presents itself to the eye, 
however, in a very peculiar manner, and with 



P OLA_VLN"A ROOKERY 




ffn ■•■ - # 



great scenic effect, wheu the observer views it from the extreme point of its mural elevation; viewed from thence, 
nearly a mile to the northwest, it rises as a front of bicolored lava-wall, high above the sea that is breaking at its 



56 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

base, and is covered with the infinite detail of massed seals in reproduction : at first sight, one wonders how they 
got there. No passages whatever can be seen, down or up. A further survey, however, discloses the common 
occurrence of rain-water runs between surf-beaten crevices, which make many stairways for the adhesive feet of 
Callorhinus amply safe and comfortable. 

For the reason cited in a similar example at Zapadnie, no "holluschickie" have been driven from this point since 
1872, though it is one of the easiest worked. It was in the Russian times a pet sealing-ground with them. 
The remains of the old village have nearly all been buried in the sand near the lake, and there is really no mark of 
its early habitation, unless it be the singular effect of a human grave-yard being dug out and despoiled by the 
attrition of seal bodies and dippers. The old cemetery just above and to the right of the barrabkie, near the 
little lake, was originally established, so the natives told me, far away from the hauling of the "holluschickie"; 
it was, when I saw it in 187G, in a melancholy state of ruin — a thousand young seals at least moved off from 
its surface as I came up, and they had actually trampled out many sandy graves, rolling the bones and skulls of 
Aleutian ancestry in ever3 r direction. Beyond this old barrabkie, which the present natives established as a house of 
refuge during the winter when they were trapping foxes, looking to the west over the lake, is a large exi>anse of low, 
flat swale and tundra, which is terminated by the rocky ridge of Kaminista; every foot of it has been placed there 
subsequent to the original elevation of the island by the action of the sea, beyond all question. It is covered with 
a thick growth of the rankest sphagnum, which quakes and trembles like a bog under one's feet, but over which 
the most beautiful mosses ever and anon crop out, including the characteristic floral display before referred to 
in speaking of the island ; most of the way from the village up to Northeast point, as will be seen by a cursory 
glance at the map, with the exception of this bluff of Polavina and the terraced table setting back from its face to 
Polavina Sopka, the whole island is slightly elevated above the level of the sea, and its coast line is lying just 
above and beyond the reach of the surf, where great ledges of sand have been piled up by the wind, capped with 
sheafs and tufts of rank-growing Elymus. 

There is a small rookery, which I call "Little Polavina", indicated here, which does not promise much for the 
future ; the sand cuts it off on the north, and sand has blown around so at its rear, as to make all other ground not 
now occupied by the breeding-seals there quite ineligible. Polavina rookery has 4,000 feet of sea-margin, including 
Little Polavina, with 150 feet of average depth, making ground for 300,000 breeding-seals and their young. 

Northeast point or Novastosiinah rookery. — Though this is the last of the St. Paul rookeries which I 
notice, yet it is so much greater than any other one on the island, or two others for that matter, that it forms the 
central feature of St. Paul, and in truth presents a most astonishing and extraordinary sight. It was a view of 
such multitudes of amphibians, when I first stood upon the summit of Hutchinson hill, and looked at the immense 
spread around me, that suggested to my mind a doubt whether the accurate investigation which I was making 
would give me courage to maintain the truth in regard to the subject. 

The result of my first survey here presented such a startliug array of superficial area massed over by 
the breeding-seals, that I was fairly disconcerted at the magnitude of the result. It troubled me so when my 
initial plottings were made, and I had worked them out so as to place them tangibly before me, that I laid the whole 
preliminary survey aside, and seizing upon the next favorable day went over the entire field again. The two plats 
then, laid side by side, substantially agreed, and I now present the great rookery to the public. It is in itself, as the 
others are, endowed with its own particular physiognomy, having an extensive sweep, everywhere surrounded by 
the sea, except at that intersection of the narrow neck of sand which joins it to the main island. Hutchinson hill 
is the foundation of the point — a solid basaltic floor, upon which a mass of breccia has been poured at its northwest 
corner, which is so rough, and yet polished so highly by the countless pattering flippers of its visitors, as to leave 
it entirely bare and bald of every spear of grass or trace of cryptogamic life. The hill is about 120 feet high ; it 
has a rounded summit flecked entirely over by the "holluschickie", while the great belt of breeding-rookery sweeps 
high up on its flanks, and around right and left, for nearly three and a half miles unbroken — au amazing sight 
in its aggregate, and infinite in its detail. 

The picturesque feature, also, of the rookery here, is the appearance of the tawny, yellowish bodies of several 
thousand sea-lions, which lay in and among the fur-seals at the several points designated on the sketch-map, though 
never far from the water. Sea-Lion neck, a little tongue of low basaltic jutting, is the principal corner where the 
natives take these animals from when they capture them in the fall for their hides and sinews.* 

Cross, or St. John's, hill, which rises near the lake, to a height of 00 or 70 feet, and is quite a land-mark itself, 
is a perfect cone of sand entirely covered with a luxuriant growth of Elymus ; it is growing constantly higher by 
the fresh deposit brought by wind, and its retention by the annually rising grasses. 

At this point, it will be noticed, there is a salt-house, and here is the killing-ground for Northeast point, where 
nineteen or twenty thousand "holluschickie" are disposed of for their skius every season ; their carcasses being spread 
out on the sand-dunes between the foot of Cross hill and Webster's house; a squad of sealers live there during the 

*The sea-lions breed cm no one of the other rookeries at this island, the insignificant number that I noticed on Seevitchio Kammis 
excepted. At Southwest point, however, I found a small sea-lion rookery, but there are no breeding fur-seals there. A handful of 
Enmotopias used to breed ou Otter island, but do not now, since it has been necessary to station government agents there, for the 
apprehension of fur-seal pirates, during the sealing season. 



m^~ 




THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



57 



three or four weeks that they are engaged in the work. The "kolluschickie" are driven from the large kauling- 
grounds on the sand-Hats immediately 
adjacent to the killing-grounds, being ob- 
tained without the slightest difficulty. 

Here also was the site of a village, once 
the largest one on this island ere its trans- 
fer to the sole control and charge of the 
old Russian-American Company, ten years 
after its discovery in 1787. The ancient 
cemetery and the turf lines of the decayed 
barraboras are still plainly visible. 

The company's steamer runs up here, 
watching her opportunity, and drops her 
anchor, as indicated on the general chart, 
right south of the salt-house, in about four 
fathoms of water; and the skins are in- 
variably hustled aboard, no time being lost, 
because it is an exceedingly uncertain place 
to safely load the vessel. 

There is no impression in my mind really 
more vivid, than is the one which was 
planted there during the afternoon of that 
July day, when I first made my survey of 
this ground ; indeed, whenever I pause to 
think of the subject, the great rookery of 
Novastoshuah rises promptly to my view, 
and I am fairly rendered dumb when I try 
to speak in definition of the spectacle. In 
the first place, this slope from Sea Lion 
neck to the summit of Hutchinson's hill 
is a long mile, smooth and gradual from the sea to the hill-top; the parade ground lying between is also nearly 
three-quarters of a mile in width, sheer and unbroken. Now, upon that area before my eyes, this day and date of 
which I have spoken, were the forms of not less than three-fourths of a million seals — pause a moment — think 
of the number — three-fourths of a million seals moving in one solid mass from sleep to frolicksome gambols, 
backward, forward, over, around, changing and interchanging their heavy squadrons, until the whole mind is so 
confused and charmed by the vastness of mighty hosts that it refuses to analyze any further. Then, too, I remember 
that the day was one of exceeding beauty for that region; it was a swift alternation overhead of those characteristic 
rain logs, between the succession of which the sun breaks out with transcendent brilliancy through the misty halos 
about it; this parade-field reflected the light like a mirror, and the seals, when they broke apart here and there for 
a moment, just enough to show its surface, seemed as though they walked upon the water. What a scene to put 
upon canvas — that amphibian host involved in those alternate rainbow lights and blue-gray shadows of the fog! 

Recapitulation of tiie estimates of number of seals. — Below is a recapitulation of these figures made 
from my surveys of the area and position of the breeding grounds of St. Paul island, between the 10th and 18th of 
July, 1872, confirmed and revised to that date in 1874. It is the first survey ever made on the island of its rookeries : 




EAST POINT 



Breeding-grounds of the fur-seal, on St. Paul island. 



'Reef rookery'' has 4.016 feet of sea-margin, with 150 feet of average depth, making ground for 

'Gorhotch rookery'' has 3,GG0 feet of sea-margin, with 100 feet of average depth, making ground for 

'Lagoon rookery" has 750 feet of sea-margin, with 100 feet of average, depth, making ground for 

•Xah Spcil rookery" has 400 feet of sea-margin, with 40 feet of average depth, making ground for 

•Lukaunon rookery" has 2,270 feet of sea margin, with 150 feet of average depth, making ground for 

'Keetavie rookery'' has 2,200 feet of sea-margin, with 150 feet of average depth, making ground for 

' Tolstoi rookery " has 3,000 feet of sea margin, with 150 feet of average depth, making ground for 

'Zapadnie rookery" has 5,880 feet of sea-margin, with 150 feet of average depth, making ground for 

' Polavina rookery " has 4,000 feet of sea-margin, with 150 feet of average depth, making ground for 

'Novastoshuah, or Northeast point" has 15,840 feet of sea-margin, with 150 feet of average depth, making ground for... 

A grand total of breeding-seals and young for St. Paul island in 1874 of 



Number of 
seals, male, 
female, and 
young. 



301,000 
183, 000 
37, 000 
8,000 
170,000 
1G5, 000 
225, 000 
441,000 
300, 000 
1,200,000 



3, 030, 000 



58 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



St. George. — St. George is now in order, and this island has only a trifling contribution for the grand total of 
the seal-life ; but small as it is, it is of much value and interest. Certainly Pribylov, not knowing of the existence 
of St. Paul, was as well satisfied as if he had possessed the boundless universe, when he first found it. As in the 
case of St. Paul island, I have been unable to learn much here in regard to the early status of the rookeries, none 
of the natives haviug any real information. The drift of their sentiment goes to show that there never was a great 
assemblage of fur-seals on St. George; in fact, never as many as there are to-day, insignificant as the exhibit is, 
compared with that of St. Paul. They say that, at first, the sea-lions owned this island, and that the Eussians, 
becoming cognizant of the fact, made a regular business of driving off the " seevitchie", in order that the fur-seals 
might be encouraged to land. Touching this statement, with my experience on St. Paul, where there is no conflict 
at all between the fifteen or twenty thousand sea-lions which breed around on the outer edge of the seal-rookeries 
there, and at Soutkvrest point, I cannot agree to the St. George legend. I am inclined to believe, however, indeed it 
is more than probable, that there were a great many more sea-lions on and about St. George before it was occupied 
by men — a hundred-fold greater, perhaps, than now ; because, a sea-lion is an exceedingly timid, cowardly creature 
when it is in the proximity of man, and will always desert any resting place where it is constantly brought into 
contact with him.* 

The scantiness of the St. George rookeries, is due to the configuration of the island itself.f There are five 
separate, well-defined rookeries on St. George, as follows : — 

Zapadnee rookery. — Directly across the island, from its north shore to Zapadnie bay, a little over three 

miles from the village, is a point where the southern 
bluff-walls of the island turn north, and drop quickly 
down from their lofty elevation in a succession of heavy 
terraces, to an expanse of rocky flat, bordered by a sea 
sand-beach; just between the sand beach, however, 
and these terraces, is a stretch of about 2,000 feet of 
low, rocky shingle, which borders the flat country back 
of it, and upon which the surf breaks free and boldly. 
Midway between the two points is the rookery ; and a 
small detachment of it rests on the direct sloping of 
the bluff itself, to the southward ; while in and around 
the rookery, falling back to some distance, the "hol- 
luschickie" are found. 

A great many confusing statements have been made 
to me about this rookery — more than in regard to any 
other on the islands. It has been said, with much 
positiveness, that, in the times of the Eussian rule, this 
was an immense rookery for St. George ; or, in other 
words, it covered the entire ground between that low 
plateau to the north and the high plateau to the south, 
as indicated on the map; and it is also cited in proof of 
this that the main village of the island, for many years, 
thirty or forty, was placed on or near the limited 
drifting sand-dune tracts just above the plateau, to the 
westward. Be the case as it may, it is certain that for 
a great, great many years back, no such rookery has 
ever existed here. When seals have rested on a chosen piece of ground to breed, they wear off the sharp edges of 
fractured basaltic bowlders, and polish the breccia and cement between them so thoroughly and so finely that years 
and years of chiseling by frost, and covering by lichens, and creeping of mosses, will be required to efface that record. 
Hence I was able, acting on the suggestion of the natives at St. Paul, to trace out those deserted fur-seal rookeries 

* This statement of the natives has a strong circumstantial backing by the published account of Choris, a French gentleman of leisure, 
and amateur naturalist and artist, who landed at St. George in 1820 (July) ; he passed several days off and on the land ; he wrote at short 
length in regard to the sea-lion, saying "that the shores were covered with innumerable troops of sea-lions. The odor which arose from 
them was insupportable. These animals were all the time rutting", etc., yet nowhere does he speak in the chapter, or elsewhere in his 
volume, of the fur-seal on St. George, but incidentally remarks that over on St. Paul it is the chief animal and most abundant.— Voyage 
Fittoresque cm tour du Monde, lies Alc'outiemies, pp. 12, 13, pi. xiv. 1322. 

Although Ibis writing of Choris in regard to the subject is brief, superficial, and indefinite, yet I value the record he made, because it 
ia prima facie evidence, to my mind, that had the fur-seal been nearly as numerous on St. George then as it was on St. Paul, he would have 
spoken of the fact surely, inasmuch as he was searching for just such items with which to illuminate his projected book of travels. The 
old Russian record as to the relative number of fur-seals on the two islands of St. George and St. Paul is clearly as palpably erroneous for 
1820, as I found it to be in 1872, 1873. No intelligent steps toward ascertaining that ratio were ever taken until I made my survey. 




THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



59 




ou the shores of that island. At Maroonitch, which had, according to their account, been abandoned for over sixty 
years by the seals, still, at their prompting, when I searched the shore, I found the old boundaries tolerably well 
denned; I could find nothing like them at Zapadnie. 

Zapadnie rookery in July, 1873, had COO feet of sea-margin, with GO feet of average depth; making ground for 
18,000 breeding-seals and their young. In 1874, I resurveyed the field and it seemed very clear to me that there had 
been a slight increase, perhaps to the number of 5,000, according to the expansion of the superficial area over that 
of 1873. 

From Zapadnie we pass to the north shore, where all the other rookeries are located, with the village at a 
central point between them on the immediate border of the sea. And, in connection with this point, it is interesting 
to record the fact that every year, until recently, it has been the regular habit of the natives to drive the 
" holluschiekie" over the two and a half or three miles of rough basaltic uplands which separate the hauling-ground 
of Zapadnie from the village; driving them to the killing-grounds there, in order to save the delay and trouble 
generally experienced in loading these skins in the open bay. The prevailing westerly and northwesterly winds 
during July and August, make it, for weeks at a time, a marine impossibibty to eflect a landing at Zapadnie, suitable 
for the safe transit of cargo to the steamer. 

This three miles of the roughest of all 
rough walks that can be imagined, is made 
by the fur-seals in about seven or eight 
hours, when driven by the Aleuts; and, the 
weather is cool and foggy. I have known 
one treasury agent, who, after making the 
trip from the village to Zapadnie, seated 
himself down in the barrabkie there, and 
declared that no money would induce him to 
walk back the same way that same day — so 
severe is the exercise to one not accustomed 
to it; but it exhibits the power of land-loco- 
motion possessed by the " holluschiekie".* 

Starry Ateel t. — This rookery is the 
next in order, and it is the most remark- 
able one on St. George, lying as it does in 
a bold sweep from the sea, up a steeply 
inclined slope to a point where the bluffs 
bordering it seaward are over 400 feet high; 
the seals being just as closely crowded at 
the summit of this lofty breeding plat as 
they are at the water's edge ; the whole ob- 
long oval on the side hill, as designated by the accompanying survey, is covered by their thickly clustered forms. 
It is a strange sight also, to sail under these bluffs with the boat, in fair weather, for a landing; and, as you walk 
the beach, over which the cliff wall frowns a sheer 500 feet, there, directly over your head the craning necks and 
twisting forms of the restless seals, ever and anon, as you glance upward, appear as if ready to launch out and 
fall below, so closely and boldly do they press the very edge of the precipice. f There is a low, rocky beaeh to the 

* The peculiarly rough character to this trail is given by the large, loose, sharp-edged basaltic bowlders, which are strewn thickly over 
all those lower plateau that bridge the island between the high bluffs at Starry Ateel and the slopes of Ahluckeyak hill. The summits 
of the two broader, higher plateaus, east and west respectively, are comparatively smooth and easy to travel over; and so is the sea-level 
flat at Zapadnie itself. On the niap.of St. George, a number of very small ponds will be noticed ; they are the fresh-water reservoirs of 
the island. The two largest of these are near the summit of this rough divide ; the seal-trail from Zapadnie to the village runs just west 
of them, and comes out on the north shore, a little to the eastward of the hanling-gronnds of Starry Ateel, where it forks and unites with 
that path. The direct line between the village and Zapadnie, though nearly a mile shorter on the chart, is equal to 5 miles more of 
distance by reason of its superlative rocky inetpualities. 

t ''Starry Ateel" or "Old Settlement"; a few hundred yards to the eastward of the rookery, is the earthen ruins of one of the pioneer 
settlements in Pribylov's time, and which, the natives say, marks the first spot selected by the Russians for their village after the discovery 
of St. George, in 1786. 

tl have been repeatedly astonished at the amazing power possessed by the fur-seal, of resistance to shocks which would certainly 
kill any other animal. To explain clearly, the reader will observe, by reference to the maps, that there are a great many cliffy places 
between the rookeries on the shore-hues of the islands. Some of these cliffs are more than 100 feet in abrupt elevation above the 
surf and rocks awash below. Frequently "holluschiekie", in ones, or twos, or threes will stray far away back from the great masses 
of their kind, and fall asleep in the thick grass and herbage which covers these mural reaches. Sometimes they will lie down and rest 
very close to the edge, ami thin as you come tramping along you discover and startle them and yourself alike. They, blinded by their first 
transports of alarm, hap promptly over the brink, snorting, coughing, and spitting as they go. Curiously peering after them and 
looking down upon the rocks, CO to 100 feet below, instead of seeing their stuuned and motionless bodies, you will invariably catch sight of 
them rapidly scrambling into the water; and, when in it, swimming off like arrows from the bow. Three "holluschiekie" were thus 



m STARRYATEEL 

Scale: 



60 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



eastward of this rookery, over which the "hollusehickie" haul in proportionate numbers, and from which the natives 
make their drives, coming from the village for this purpose, and directing the seals back, in their tracks.* Starry 

Ateel has 500 feet of sea and cliff margin, 
with 125 feet of average depth, making 
ground for 30,420 breeding-seals and 
their young. 

North rookery.— Next in order, and 
half a mile to the eastward, is this breed- 
ing-ground, which sweeps for 2,750 feet 
along and around the sea-frontof a gently 
sloping plateau ; t being in full sight of 
and close to the village. It has a super- 
ficial area occupied by 77,000 breeding- 
seals and their young. From this rook- 
ery to the village, a distance of less than 
a quarter of a mile, the "hollusehickie" 
are driven which are killed for their 
skins, on the common track or seal-worn 
trail, that, not only the "bachelors" but 
ourselves travel over en route to and from 
Starry Ateel and Zapadnie ; it is a broad, 
hard-packed erosion through the sphag- 
num, and across the rocky plateaux — in 
fact a regular seal-road, which has been 
used by the drivers and victims during 
the last eighty or ninety years. The 
fashion on St. George, in this matter of 
driving seals, is quite different from that 
on St. Paul. To get their maximum quota of 25,000 annually, it is necessary for the natives to visit every morning 
the hauling-grounds of each one of these four rookeries on the north shore, and bring what they may find back with 
them for the day. 

inadvertently surprised by me on the edge of the west face to Otter island. They plunged over from an elevation, there, not less than 
200 feet in sheer elevation, and I distinctly saw them fall in scrambling, whirling evolutions, down, thumping upon the rocky shingle 
beneath, from which they bounded, as they struck, like so many rubber halls. Two of them never moved after the rebound ceased, but 
the third one reached the water and swam away like a bird on the wing. 

While they seem to escape without bodily injury incident to such hard falls as ensue from dropping 50 or 60 feet upon pebbly beaches and 
rough bowlders below, and even greater elevations, yet I am inclined to think that some internal injuries are necessarily sustained in 
most every case, which soon develop and cause death ; the excitement and the vitality of the seal, at the moment of the terrific shock, 
is able to sustain and conceal the real injury for the time being. 

* Driving the "hollusehickie" on St. George, owing to the relative scantiness of hauling area for those animals there, and consequent 
small numbers found upon these grounds at any one time, is a very arduous series of daily exercises on the part of the natives who attend 
to it. Glancing at the map, the marked considerable distance, over an exceedingly rough road, will be noticed between Zapadnie and 
the village ; yet, in 1872, eleven different drives across the island, of 400 to 500 seals each, were made in the short four weeks of that season. 

The following table shows plainly the striking inferiority of the seal-life, as to aggregate number, on this island, eonrpared with 
that of St. Paul : 




Rookeries of St. George. 



1 Zapadnie " (between Jnne 14 and July 28) 

'Starry Ateel" (between June G and July 29) 

'Nortb Rookery" (between June 1 and July 27) . 

''Little Eastern " , 

'•Great Eastern " (between Jnne 5 and July 28) . 




5,194 
5,274 



The same activity in "sweeping" the hauling-grounds of St. Paul would bring in ten times as many seals, and the labor be vastly 
less ; the driving at St. Paul is generally done with an eye to securing each day of the season only as many as can be well killed and 
skinned on that day, according as it be warmish or cooler. 

tl should say "a gently sloping and alternating bluff plateau"; 2,000 feet are directly under the abrupt faces of low cliffs, while the 
other 750 feet slope down gradually to the water's edge ; these narrow cliff bells of breeding fur-seals might be properly styled "rookery 
ribbons". 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



61 



Little Eastern rookery.* — From the village to the eastward, about half a mile again, is a little eastern 
rookery, which lies on a low, bluffy slope, and is 




HocKy. -Lu-x.u.'-La-n.t S'- 



not a piece of ground admitting of much more 
expansion. It has superficial area for the recep- 
tion of nearly 13,000 breeding-seals and their 
young. 

The Great Eastern. — This is the last 
rookery that we find on St. George. It is an 
imitation, in miniature, of Tolstoi on St. Paul, 
with the exception of there being no parade- 
ground in the rear, of any character whatever. 
It is from the summit of the cliffs, overlooking 
the narrow ribbon of breeding-seals right under 
them, that I have been able to study the move- 
ments of the fur-seal in the water to my heart's 
content ; for out, and under the water, the rocks, 
to a considerable distance, are covered with a 
whitish algoid growth, that renders the dark 
bodies of the swimming seals and sea-lions as 
conspicuous as is the image thrown by a magic 
lantern of a silhouette on a screen prepared for its 
reception. t The low rocky flats around the pool 
to the westward and northwest of the rookery 
seem to be filled up with a muddy alluvial wash 
that the seals do not favor; hence nothing but 
" aolluschickie " range round about them. 

Recapitulation. — In recapitulation, there- 
fore, the breeding-grounds on St. George island, 
according to the surveys which I made between 
the 12th and 15th of July, 1873, gave the follow- 
ing figures. They are also, as in the case of St. Paul, the first surveys ever made here: 



■aasy jTUtto 



LITTLE EASTERN 



:ale: 



Name of breeding-grounds, July 12-15, 1873. 



Seals: $ ? ©. 



' Zapadu ie rookery " has 600 feet of sea-margin, with 60 feet of average depth, making ground for 

'Starry Ateel" rookery has 500 feet of sea-margin, with 125 feet of average depth, making ground for 

' North rookery " has 750 feet of sea-margin, with 150 feet of average depth, and 2,000 feet of sea-margin, with 25 feet of 

average depth; making ground in all for 

'Little Eastern" rookery has 750 feet of sea-margin, with 40 feet of average depth, making ground for 

' Great Eastern " rookery has 900 feet of sea-margin, with 60 feet of average depth, making ground for 

A grand total of the seal-life for St. George island, breeding-seals and young, of 

Grand total for St. Paul island, brought forward, breeding-seals and young, of 

Grand sum total for the Pribylov islands (season of 1373), breeding-seals and young 



18, 000 
30, 420 

77, 000 
13, 000 
25, 000 



163, 420 
3, 030, 000 

3, 193, 420 



The figures above thus show a grand total of 3,193,420 breeding-seals and their young. This enormous 
aggregate is entirely exclusive of the great numbers of the non-breeding seals, that, as we have pointed out, are 
never permitted to come up on those grounds which have been surveyed and epitomized by the table just exhibited. 
That class of seals, the "hollusehickie", in general terms, all males, and those to which the killing is confined, come 
up ou the laud and sea-beaches between the rookeries, in immense straggling droves, going to and from the sea at 

*The site of this breeding-ground and that of the marine slope of the killing-grounds to the east of the village, on this island, is 
where sea-lions held exclusive possession prior to their driving off by the Russians — so the natives affirm — the only place on St. George 
now where the Eumeiopias breeds, is that one indicated on the general chart, between Garden cove and Tolstoi Mees. 

tThe algoid vegetation of the marine shores of these islands is one that adds a peculiar charm and beauty to their treeless, sunless 
coasts. Every kelp bed that floats raft-like in Bering sea, or is anchored to its rocky reefs, is fairly alive with minute sea-shrimps, tiny crabs, 
and little shells which cling to its masses of interwoven fronds or dart in ceaseless motion through, yet within its interstices. It is my firm 
belief that no better base of operations <an be found for studying marine invertebrata than is the post of St. Paul or St. George ; the pelagic 
and the littoral forms are simply abundant beyond all estimation within bounds of reason. The phosphorescence of the waters of Bering 
sea surpasses, in continued strength of brilliant illumination, anything that I have seen in southern and equatorial oceans. The crests of 
the long unbroken line of breakers on Lukannou beach looked to me, one night in August, like an instantaneous flashing of lightning, 



62 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 




GREAT EASTERN 

S c a,le : 



irregular intervals, from the beginning to the closing of the entire season. The method of the " holluschiekie " on these 
hauliug-grounds is not systematic— it is not distinct, like the manner and law prescribed and obeyed by the breeding- 
seals, which fill up those rookery-grounds 
to the certain points as surveyed, and keep 



these points intact for a week or ten days, 
at a time, during the height of every season 
in July and August; but, to the contrary, 
upon the hauling-grounds to-day, an im- 
mense drove of 100,000 will be seen before 
you at English bay, sweeping hither and 
surging thither over the polished surface 
which they have worn with their restless 
flippers, tracing and retracing their tire- 
less marches ; consequently the amount of 
ground occupied by the "holluschiekie" is 
vastly in excess of what they would require 
did they conform to the same law of distri- 
bution observed by the breeding seals; and 
this ground is therefore wholly untenable 
for any such definite basis and satisfactory 
conclusion as is that which I have surveyed 
on the rookeries. Hence, in giving an esti- 
mate of the aggregate number of "hollus- 
chiekie" or non-breeding seals, on the Priby- 
lov islands, embracing as it does all the 
males under six and seven years of age and 
all the yearling females, it must, necessarily, be a simple opinion of mine founded upon nothing better than my 
individual judgment. This is my conclusion: 

The non-breeding seals seem nearly equal in number to that of the adult breeding-seals; but without putting 
them down at a figure quite so high, I may safely say that the sum total of 1,500,000, in round numbers, is a fair 
enumeration, and quite within bounds of fact. This makes the grand sum total, of the fur-seal life on the Pribylov 
islands, over 4,700,000. 

The increase or diminution of the seal-life, past, present, and prospective. — One stereotyped 
question has been addressed to me universally by my friends since my return, first in 1873, from the seal-islands. 
The query is: "At the present rate of killing the seals, it will not be long ere they are exterminated; how much 
longer will they last?" My answer is now as it was then, "Provided matters are conducted on the seal-islands in 
the future as they are to-day, 100,000 male seals under the age of five years and over one, may be safely taken 
every year from the Pribylov islands, without the slightest injury to the regular birth-rates, or natural increase 
thereon ; provided, also, that the fur-seals are not visited by any plague, or pests, or any abnormal cause for their 
destruction, which might be beyond the control of men ; and to which, like any other great body of animal life, they 
must ever be subjected to the danger of."* 

Loss of life sustained by the young- seals. — From my calculations, given above, it will be seen that 
1,000,000 pups, or young seals, in round numbers, are born upon these islands of the Pribylov group every year; 
of this million, one-half are males. These 500,000 young males, before they leave the islands for sea, during October 
and November, and when they are between five and six months old, fat and hardy, have suffered but a trifling loss 
in numbers, say one per cent., while on and about the islands of their birth, surrounding which, and upon which, 
they have no enemies whatever to speak of; but, after they, get well down to the Pacific, spread out over an 
immense area of watery highways in quest of piscatorial food, they form the most helpless of their kind to resist 

between Tolsti Mees and Lukannon head, as the billows successively rolled in, and broke ; the seals swimming under the water, here on 
St. George and beneath the Black Bluffs, streaked their rapid course like comets in the sky ; and every time their dark heads popped above 
the surface of the sea, they were marked by a blaze of sciutillant light. 

*The thought of what a deadly epidemic would effect among these vast congregations of Pinnejjcdia was one that was constant in 
my mind when on the ground and among them. I have found iu the British Annals (Fleming's), on page 17, an extract from the notes of 
Dr. Trail: "In 1833 I inquired for my old acquaintances, the seals of the Hole of Papa Westray, and was informed that about four years 
before they had totally deserted the island, and had only within the last few months begun to reappear. * * * About fifty years 
ago multitudes of their carcasses were cast ashore in every bay in the north of Scotland, Orkney, and Shetland, and numbers were found 
at sea in a sickly state." This note of Trail is the only record which I can find of a fatal epidemic among the seals ; it is not reasonable 
to suppose that the Pribylov rookeries have never suffered from distempers in the past, or are not to, in the future, simply because no 
occasion seems to have arisen during the comparatively brief period of their human domination. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. G3 

or elude the murderous teeth and carnivorous attacks of basking sharks* and killer-whales t. By these agencies, 
daring their absence from the islands until their reappearance in the following year, and in July, they are 80 
perceptibly diminished in number that I do not think, fairly considered, more than one half of the legion which left 
the "round of their birth, last October, came up the next July to these favorite landing-places; that is, ouly 250,000 
of them return out of the 500,000 born last year. The same statement, in every respect, applies to the going and 
the coming of the 500,000 female pups, which are identical in size, shape, and behavior. 

As yearlings, however, these 250,000 survivors, of last year's birth, have become strong, lithe, and active 
swimmers; and, when they again leave the hauling-grounds as before, in the fall, they are fully as able as are the 
older class to take care of themselves; and when they reappear next year, at least 225,000 of them safely return in 
the second season after birth; from this on I believe that they live out their natural lives of fifteeu to twenty years 
each : the death-rate now caused by the visitation of marine enemies affecting them, in the aggregate, but slightly. 
And again, the same will hold good touching the females, the average natural life of which, however, I take to be 
only nine or ten years each. 

Out of these 225,000 young males, we are required to save only one-fifteenth of their number to pass over to the 
breeding-grounds, and meet there the 225,000 young females; in other words, the polygamous habit of this animal 
is such that, by its own volition, I do not think that more than one male annually out of fifteen born is needed on 
the breeding-grounds in the future; but in my calculations, to be within the margin and to make sure that I save 
two-year-old males enough every season, 1 will more than double this proportion, and set aside every fifth one of 
the young males in question; that will leave 1SO,000 seals, in good condition, that can be safely killed every year, 
without the slightest injury to the perpetuation of the stock itself forever in all its original integrity.! 

In the above showing I have put the very extreme estimate upon the loss sustained at sea by the pup-seals 
too large, 1 am morally certain ; but, in attempting to draw this line safely, I wish to place the matter in the 
very worst light in which it can lie put, and to give the seals the full benefit of every doubt. Surely I have 
clearly presented the case, and certainly no one will question the premises after they have studied the habit 
and disposition of the rookeries; hence, it is a positive and tenable statement, that no danger of the slightest 
appreciable degree of injury to the interests of the government on the Seal-islands of Alaska, exists as long as the 
present law protecting it, and the management executing it, continues. 

COURSE rrr.srr.D by tiie SEALS after LEAVING the islands. — These fur-seals of the Pribylov group, after 
leaving the islands in the autumn and early winter, do not visit land again until the time .of their return in the 
following spring and early summer, to these same rookery- and hauling-grounds, unless they touch, as they are 
navigating their lengthened journey back, at the Russian Copper, and Bering islands, 700 miles to the westward 
of tin' Pribylov group. They leave the islands by independent squads, each one looking out for itself; apparently 
all turn by common consent to the south, disappearing toward the horizon, and are soon lost in the vast expanse 
below, where they spread themselves over the entire North Pacific as far south as the 4Sth and even the 47th 
parallels of north latitude. Over the immense area between Japan and Oregon, doubtless, many extensive 
submarine fishing-shoals and banks are known to them; at least, it is definitely understood that Bering sea does 

iniogtia microcephalia. Some of these sharks are of very large size, and when caught by the Indians of the northwest coast, 
basking or asleep on the surface of the sea, they will, if transfixed by the native's harpoons, take a whole tleet of canoes in tow and 
run swiftly with them several hours before exhaustion enables the savages to finally dispatch them. A Hudson Bay trader, William 
Hanson (at Ft. Alexander, in 1865), told me that his father had killed one in the smooth waters of Jlillbank sound, which measured 24 
feet in length, and its liver alone yielded :j!i galloDs of oil. The Somniosus lays motionless for long intervals iu calm waters of the North 
Pacific, just under and at the surface, with its dorsal fin clearly exposed above; what havoc such a carnivorous fish would be likely to 
effect in a " pod" of young fur-seals, can be better imagined than described 

t Orca gladiator. While revolving this particular line of inquiry in my mind when, on the ground and among the seals, I 
involuntarily looked constantly for some sign of disturbance in the sea which would indicate the presence of an enemy; and, save seeing 
a few examples of the Orca, I never detected anything; if the killer-whale was common here, it would lie patent to the most casual 
eye, because it is the habit of this ferocious cetacean to swim so closely at the surface as to show its peculiar sharp, dorsal fin high above 
t lie water : possibly a very superficial observer could and would confound (he long, trenchant fluke of the Orca with the stubby node upon 
the spine of the humpback whale, which that animal exhibits only when it is about to dive. Humpbacks feed around the islands, but 
not commonly — they are the exception; they do not, however, molest the seals iu any manner whatever; and little squads of these 
pinnipeds seem to delight themselves by swimming iu endless circles around and under the huge bodies of those whales, frequently leaping 
out and entirely over the cetacean's back, as witnessed ou one occasion by myself and the crew of the "Reliance", off the coast of 
Kadiak. .Tune. 1874. 

t When regarding the subject in lfe72-73, of how many surplus young males could be wisely taken from the Pribylov stock, I satisfied 
myself that more than 100,000 could be drawn upon annually for their skins, aud hence was impressed with the idea that the business 
might lie safely developed to a greater maximum; since then, however, I have been giving attention to the other side of the question, 
which involves the market for the skins and the practical working of any sliding scale of increased killing, such as I then recommended. 
A careful review of the whole matter modifies my original idea and causes me to think that, all things considered, it is better to " let well 
enough alone". Although it would be a most interesting commercial experiment to develop the yield of the Pribylov islands to their full 
capacity, yet. in view of the anomalous and curious features of the case, it is wiser to be satisfied with the assured guarantee of 
perpetuation in all original integrity, which the experience of the last ten years gives us on the present basis of 100,000, than to risk it 
by possibly doubling the revenue therefrom. Therefore, I am not now in favor of my earlier proposition of gradually increasing the 
killiug, until the maximum number of surplus "holluschickie" should bo ascertained. 



64 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

not contain them long when they depart from the breeding-rookeries and the hanling-grounds therein. While 
it is carried in mind that they sleep and rest in the water with soundness and with the greatest comfort on its 
surface, and that even when around the land, during the summer, they frequently put off from the beaches to take 
a bath and a quiet snooze just beyond the surf, we can readily agree that it is no inconvenience whatever, when 
flic reproductive functions have been discharged, and their coats renewed, for them to stay the balance of the time 
in their most congenial element — the briny deep. 

Natural enemies of tiie fur-seals. — That these animals are preyed upon extensively by killer-whales 
(Orca gladiator), in especial, and by sharks, and probably other submarine foes now unknown, is at once evident; 
for, were they not held in check by some such cause, they would, as they exist to-day on St. Paul, quickly 
multiply, by arithmetical progression, to so great an extent that the island, nay, Bering sea itself, could not 
contain them. The present annual killing of 100,000 out of a yearly total of over a million males does not, in an 
appreciable degree, diminish the seal-life, or interfere in the slightest with its regular, sure perpetuation on the 
breeding-grounds every year. We may, therefore, properly look upon this aggregate of four and five millions of 
fur-seals, as we see them every season on these Pribylov islands, as the maximum limit of increase assigned to them 
by natural law. The great equilibrium, which nature holds in life upon this earth, must be sustained at St. Paul 
as well as elsewhere. 

Food consumed by the fur-seals. — Think of the enormous food-consumption of these rookeries and 
hauling-grounds ; what an immense quantity of finny pi*ey must pass down their voracious throats as every 
year rolls by. A creature so full of life, strung with nerves, muscles like bands of steel, cannot live on air, or 
absorb it from the sea. Their food is fish, to the practical exclusion of all other diet. I have never seen them 
touch, or disturb with the intention of touching it, one solitary example in the flocks of water- fowl which rest upon 
the surface of the water all about the islands. I was especially careful in noting this, because it seemed to me that 
the canine armature of their mouths must suggest flesh for food at times as well as fish ; but fish we know they eat. 
Whole windrows of the heads of cod and wolf fishes,* bitten off by these animals at the nape, were washed up on 
the south shore of St. George during a gale in the summer of 1873; this pelagic decapitation evidently marked the 
progress and the appetite of a baud of fur-seals to the windward of the island, as they passed into and through a 
stray school of these fishes. 

How many pounds per diem is required by an adult seal, and taken by it when feeding, is not certain in my 
mind. Judging from the appetite, however, of kindred animals, such as sea-lions fed in confinement at Woodward's 
gardens, San Francisco, I can safely say that forty pounds for a full-grown fur-seal is a fair allowance, with at least 
ten or twelve pounds per diem to every adult female, and not much- less, if any, to the rapidly growing pups and 
young "holluschickie". Therefore, this great body of four and five millions of hearty, active animals which we know 
on the seal-islands, must consume an enormous amount of such food every year. They cannot average less than 
ten pounds of fish each per diem, which gives the consumption, as exhibited by their appetite, of over six million 
tons of fish every year. What wonder, then, that nature should do something to hold these active fishermen in 
check.t 

* Anarrhichas sp. 

1 1 feel confident, that I have placed this average of fish eaten per diem hy each seal at a starvation allowance, or, in other words, it 
is a certain minimum of the whole consumption. If the seals can get double the quantity which I credit them with above, startling as it 
seems, still I firmly believe that they eat it every year. An adequate realization by icthyologists and fishermen as to what havoc the fur- 
seal hosts are annually making among the cod, herring, and salmon of the northwest coast and Alaska, would disconcert and astonish 
them. Happily for the peace of political economists who may turn their attention to the settlement and growth of the Pacific coast of 
America, it bids fair to never be known with anything like precision. The fishing of man, both aboriginal and civilized, in the past, 
present, and prospective, has never been, is not, nor will it be, more than a drop in the bucket contrasted with the piscatorial labors of 
these icthyophagi in those waters adjacent to their birth. What catholic knowledge of fish and fishing banks any one of those old 
"seecatchie" must possess, which we observe hauled out on the Pribylov rookeries each summer. It has, undoubtedly, during the 
eighteen or twenty years of its life, explored every fish eddy, bank, 6r shoal throughout the whole of that vast immensity of the North 
Pacific and Bering sea. It has had more piscino sport in a single twelve month than Izaak Walton had in his whole life. 

An old sea-captain, Dampier, cruising around the wor'd just about 200 years ago, wrote diligently thereof (or, rather, one Funnel 
is said to have written for him), and wrote well. He had frequent reference to meeting hair-seals and sea-lions, fur-seals, etc., and fell 
into repeating this maxim, evidently of his own making: " For wherever there he plenty of fysh, there be seals." I am sure that, unless 
a vast abundance of good fishing-ground was near by, no such congregation of seal-life as is that under discussion on the seal-islands, 
could exist. Tho whole eastern half of Bering sea, in its entirety, is a single fish spawning bank, nowhere deeper than 50 to 75 fathoms, 
averaging, perhaps, 40 ; also, there are great reaches of fishing-shoals up "and down the northwest coast, from and above the straits of 
Fuca, bordering the entire southern, or Pacific, coast of the Aleutian islands. The aggregate of cod, herring, and salmon which the seals 
find upon these vast icthyological areas of reproduction, must be simply enormous, and fully equal to the most extravagant demand of the 
voracious appetites of Callorhini. 

When, however, the fish retire from spawning here, there, and everywhere over these shallows of Alaska and the northwest coast, 
along by the end of September to 1st of November, every year, I believe that the young fur-seal, in following them into the depths of the 
great Pacific, must have a really arduous struggle for existence — unless it knows of fishing banks unknown to us. The yearlings, however, 
and all above that age, are endowed with sufficient muscular energy to dive rapidly in deep soundings, and to fish with undoubted success. 
The pup, however, when it goes to sea, five or six months old, is not lithe and sinewy like the yearling ; it is podgy and fat, a comparative 
clumsy swimmer, and does not develop, I believe, into a good fisherman until it has become pretty well starved after leaving the Pribylovs. 



THE FUR SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 65 

Pelagic range of fur seals foe pood.— Daring the winter solstice — between the lapse of the autumnal, 
and the verging of the vernal equinoxes — in order to get this enormous food supply, the far-seals are necessarily 
obliged to disperse over a very large area of fishing ground, ranging throughout the North Pacific, 5,000 miles 

across between Japan and the straits of Puca. In feeding', they are brought to the southward all this time; and, 
as they go, they come more and more in contact with those natural enemies peculiar to the sea of these southern 
latitudes, which are almost strangers and are really unknown to the waters of Bering sea; for I did not observe, 
wiili the exception of ten or twelve perhaps, certainly no more, killer-whales,* a single marine disturbance, or 
molestation, daring the three seasons which I passed upon the islands, that could be regarded in the slightest 
degree inimical to the peace and life of the Pinnipedia ,• and thus, from my observation, I am led to believe that it 
is not until they descend well to the south of the Aleutian islands, and in the Xorth Pacific, that they meet with 
sharks to any extent, and are diminished by the butchery of killer-whales. t 

The young fur-seals going out to sea for the first time, and following in the wake of their elders, are the 
clumsy members of the family. When they go to sleep on the surface of the water, they rest muc'h sounder than 
the others; and their alert and wary nature, which is handsomely developed ere they are two seasons old, is in its 
infancy. Hence, I believe that vast numbers of them are easily captured by marine foes, as they are stupidly 
sleeping, or awkwardly fishing. 

Behavior of fur-seals in the waters around the islands.— In this connection I wish to record an 
impression very strongly made upon my mind, in regard to their diverse behavior when out at sea, away from the, 
islands, and when congregated thereon. As I have plainly exhibited in the foregoing chapter, they are practically 
without fear of man when he visits them on the land of their birth and recreation; but the same seal that noticed 
you with quiet indifference at St. Paul, in June and July, and the rest of the season while he was there, or gamboled 
around your boat when you rowed from the ship to shore, as a dog will play about your horses when you drive 
from the gate to the house, that same seal, when you meet him in one of the passes of the Aleutian chain, 100 or 
200 miles away from here, as the case may be, or to the southward of that archipelago, is the shiest and wariest 
creature your ingenuity can define. Happy are you in getting but a single glimpse of him, first; you will never 
see him after, until he hauls out, and winks and blinks across Lukannon sands.f 

But the companionship and the exceeding number of the seals, when assembled together annually, makes them 
bold; largely due, perhaps, to their fine instinctive understanding, dating, probably, back many years, seeming to 
know that man, after all, is not wantonly destroying them; and what he takes, he only takes from the ravenous 
maw of the killer-whale or the saw-tipped teeth of the Japan shark. As they sleep in the water, off the straits of 
Fuca, and the northwest coast as far as Dixon's sound, the Indians, belonging to that region, surprise them with 
spears and rifle, capturing quite a number every year, chiefly pups and yearlings. 

I must not be understood as saying that lish alone constitute the diet of the Pribylov pinnipeds; J know that they feed, to a limited 
extent, upon crustaceans and upon the squid {Lol'ujo), also, eating tender algoid sprouts; I believe that the pup-seals live fur the first live 
or six months at sea largely, if not wholly, upon crustaceans and squids; they are not agile enough, in my opiuiou, to lish successfully in 
any great degree, when they first depart from the rookeries. 

*But I did observe a very striking exhibition, however, of this character one afternoon while looking over Lukannon bay. I saw a 
"killer" chasing the alert "holluschickie" out beyond the breakers, when suddenly, in an instant, the cruel cetacean was turned toward 
the beach in hot pursuit, and in less time than this is read the ugly brute was high and dry upon the sands. The natives were called, 
and a great feast was in prospect when I left the carcass. 

But this was the only instance of the orca in pursuit of seals that came directly under my observation: hence, though it does 
undoubtedly capture a few here every year, yet it is an insignificant cause of destruction, on account of its rarity. 

tin the stomach of one of these animals, year before last, 14 small harp-seals were found. — Michael Carroll's Report of Seal and 
Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland. 

(When fur-seals were noticed, by myself, far away from these islands, at sea, I observed that then they were as shy and as wary as 
the most timorous animal which, in dreading man's proximity, could be — sinking instantly ou apprehending the approach or presence of 
the ship, seldom to reappear to my gaze. But, when gathered in such immense numbers at the Pribylov islands, they are suddenly 
metamorphosed into creatures wholly indifferent to my person. It must cause a very curious sentiment in the mind of him who comes for 
the first time, during the summer season, to the island of St. Paul; where, when the landiug boat or lighter carries him ashore from the 
■vessel, the whole short marine journey is enlivened by the gambols and aquatic evolutions of fur-seal convoys to the "bidarrah," which 
sport joyously and fearlessly round and round his craft, as she is rowed lustily ahead by the natives; the fur-seals, then, of all classes, 
"holluschickie" principally, pop their dark heads up out of the sea, rising neck and shoulders erect above the surface, to peer and ogle at 
him aud at his boat, diving quickly to reappear just ahead or right behind, hardly beyond striking distance from the oars; these 
gymnastics of Callorhinus are not wholly performed thus in silence, for it usually snorts and chuckles with hearty reiteration. 

The sea-lions up here also manifest much the same marine interest, and gives the voyager an exhibition quite similar to the one which 
I have just spoken of. when a small boat is rowed in the neighborhood of its shore, rookery; it is not, however, so hold, confident, and 
social ;is the fur-seal under the circumstances, and utters only a short, stilled growl of surprise, perhaps; its mobility, however, of 
Vocalization is sadly deficient when compared with the scope aud compass of its valuable relative's polyglottis. 

The hair-seals (Phoca rilulina) around these islands never approached our boats in this manner, and I seldom caught more than a 
furtive glimpse of their short, bull-dog heads when traversing the coast by water. 

The walrus (Iiosmarus ohesus) also, like Phoca vitulina. gave undoubted evidence of sore alarm over the presence of my boat and crew 
anywhere near its proximity in similar situations, only showing itself once or twice, perhaps, at a safe distance by elevating nothing but 
tin- extreme tip of its muzzle and its bleared, popping eyes above the water: it uttered no sound except a dull, muffled grunt, or else a 
choking, singling bellow. 



66 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Encysted bullets, akrows, etc., in pur-seals. — On the killing- grounds at St. George, in June, 1873, 
the natives would frequently call iuy attention to seals that they were skinning, in the hides of which buckshot 
were embedded and encysted just under the skin, in the blubber. From one animal I picked out fifteen shot, and 
the holes which they must have made in the skin were so entirely healed over as not to leave the faintest trace of 
a scar. These buckshot were undoubtedly received from the natives of the northwest coast, anywhere between 
the straits of Fuca aud the Aleutian islands. The number taken by these hunters on the high seas is, however, 
inconsiderable ; the annual average, perhaps, of 5,000 skins is a fair figure — some seasons more, some seasons 
less. The natives also have found on the killing-grounds, in the manner just indicated, specimens of the 
implements employed by the Aleuts to the southward, such as tips of birds' spears and bone lances, comfortably 
encysted in the blubber under the skin ; but only very small fragments are found, because I believe any 
larger pieces would create suppuration and slough out of the wounds.* 

Increase op the seal-life. — I am free to say that it is not within the power of lmman management to 
promote this end to the slightest appreciable degree over its present extent and condition as it stands in the state 
of nature, heretofore described. It cannot fail to be evident, from my detailed narration of the habits and life of 
the fur-seal on these islands during so large a part of every year, that could man have the same supervision and 
control over this animal during the whole season which he has at his command while they visit the land, he might 
cause them to multiply aud increase, as he would so many cattle, to an indefinite number — only limited by time and 
the means of feeding them. But the case in question, unfortunately, is one where the fur-seal is taken, by demands 
for food, at least six months out of every year, far beyond the reach or even cognizance of any man, where it is 
all this time exposed to many known powerful and destructive natural enemies, and probably many others, equally 
so, unknown, which prey upon it, and, in accordance with that well-recognized law of nature, keeps this seal-life at 
a certain number — at a figure which has been reached, for ages past, and will continue to be in the future, as far 
as they now are — their present maximum limit of increase, namely, between four and five million seals, in round 
numbers. This law holds good everywhere throughout the animal kingdom, regulating and preserving the 
equilibrium of life in the state of nature ; did it not hold good, these seal-islands and all Bering sea would have 
been literally covered, and have swarmed like the Mechiscv of the waters, long before the Russians discovered them. 
But, according to the silent testimony of the rookeries, which have been abandoned by the seals, and the noisy, 
emphatic assurance of those now occupied, there were no more seals when first seen here by human eyes in 1786 
and 1787, than there are now in 1881, as far as all evidence goes. 

* Touching this matter of the approximate numbers of fur-seals which are annually slain in the open sea, straits, and estuaries of Bering 
and the North Pacific oceans, I have, necessarily, no definite data upon Which to base a calculation ; but such as I have, points to the 
capture every year of 1,000 to 1,400 young fur-seals in the waters of Oomnak pass, and as many in the straits adjoining Borka village, by 
the resident Aleuts; these are the only two points throughout the entire Aleutian chain and the peninsula where any Callorhinus is taken 
by the natives, except an odd example now and then elsewhere. On the north-west coast, between San Franci-co and Prince William 
souud, the fur-seal is only apprehended, to any extent, at two points, viz, off the straits of Fuca, ten to twenty miles at sea, sweeping over 
a series of large fishing shoals which are located there, and in that reach of water between Queen Charlotte island and tho mouth of 
Dixon sound. Several small schooners, with native crews, and the Indians, themselves, in their own canoes, cruise for them here during 
May and June of each year. How many they secure every season is merely a matter of estimation, and therefore not a subject of definite 
announcement. In iuy Judgment, after carefully investigating the question at Victoria and Port Townsend in 1874, 1 believe, as an average, 
that these pelagic fur-sealers do not, altogether, secure 5,000 animals annually. 

Those seals killed by the Aleuts of Makushin and Borka settlements, above referred to, are all pups, and are used at home — none 
exported for trade. 

The last record which I can find of fur-seals being taken on land other than that of the Pribylov group of the American side, is the 
following brief table of Techmainov, who, in 1803, published (in 2 volumes) a long recapitulation of the Russian-American Company's 
labors in Alaska as illustrated by a voluminous series of personal letters by the several agents of that company. Techmainov says that 
these fur-seals were taken on the Farralones, which are small islets just abreast of the entrance to the Golden Gate, California. 





1824. 


1825. 


1826. 


1827. 


1828. 


1829. 


1830. 


1831. 


1832. 


1833. 










1,050 


455 


290 




210 


287 




205 


118 


54 













This period of 1824-1834 was the one passed by the Russians in their occupation of Ross or Bodega, California, where a colony was 
engaged in raising cereals and beef, for the stations in Alaska. I am inclined to think, however, that very likely many of the 
specimens of Callorhinus counted in this table were shot or speared, as they now are. out at sea off the strails of Fuca. The number is 
insignificant, but the pelts were not very valuable in those days, and probably very slight exertions were made to get them ; or, otherwise, 
3,000 or 5,000 annually could have been secured at sea then, as they are to-day, by our people and the Indians of Cape Flattery. 

The record, however, of killing fur-seals on the Farralones, between 1806 and 1837, by the Russians, who were established then at 
Bodega, California, is an honest one. Ido not find any mention made of the fact that they bred there, and I am inclined to think they 
did not. I believe that when small squads of Callorhinus ursinus hauled out on the Californiau islets, they did so lured by the large 
numbers of breeding Zalophus, and tho Eumetopias which repaired there then, as they do now, for that purpose. Had the sea-lions not 
been there, in the manner aforesaid, the presence of fur-seals on North American land, elsewhere than on that of the Pribylov group, 
would not have been thus determined aud established. 

Again, in this conuection, and corroborative, is the fact that in 1878 a few hundred fur-seals were taken by sea-lion hunters among 
the Zalophus at Santa Barbara and Guadalonpe islands, southern Californiau coast. I am assured of this fact by the evidence of the 
gentleman who himself purchased tho skins from the lucky hunters. None had ever been seen there before, by our people, and none 
have been taken Since. The Russian archives give no testimony oh tills store. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 67 

Sites of abandoned ROOKERIES. — With reference to the amount of ground covered by the seals, when 
first discovered by the Russians, I have examined every foot of the shore line of both islands where the bones, ami 
polished rocks, etc., might be lying on any deserted areas. Since then, after carefully surveying the new ground now 
occupied by the seals, and comparing this area with that which they have deserted, 1 feel justified in stating that 
for the last twelve or fifteen years, at least, the fur-seals on these islands have not diminished, nor have they 
increased as a body to any noteworthy degree; and throughout this time the breeding grounds have not been 
disturbed except at that brief but tumultuous interregnum during 18GS; and they have been living since in a 
perfectly quiet and natural condition. 

CAN xiie number be increased ? — AVhat can be done to promote their increase ? We cannot cause a greater 
number of females to be born every year than are born now; we do not touch or disturb these females as they "row 

up and live ; and we never will, if the law and present management is continued. We save double we save 

more than enough males to serve; nothing more can be done by human agency; it is beyond our power to protect 
them from their deadly marine enemies as they wander into the boundless ocean searching for food. 

In view, therefore, of all these facts, I have no hesitation in saying, quite confidently, that under the present 
rules and regulations governing the sealing interests on these islands, the increase or diminution of the seal life 
thereon will amount to nothing in the future ; that the seals will exist, as they do exist, in all time to come at about 
the same number aud condition recorded in this monograph. To test this theory of mine, I here, in the record of 
my surveys of the rookeries, have put stakes down which will answer, upon those breeding-grounds, as a correct 
guide as to their present, as well as to their future, condition, from year to year. 

SUETEYING the condition of THE ROOKERIES.— During the first week of inspection of some of those earliest 
arrivals, the "seecatchie", which I, have described, will frequently take to the water when approached; but 
these runaways quickly return. By the end of May, however, the same seals will hardly move to the right or left 
when you attempt to pass through them. Then, two weeks before the females begin to come in, and quickly 
after their arrival, the organization of the fur-seal rookery is rendered entirely indifferent to man's presence on 
visits of quiet inspection, or to anything else, save their own kind, and so continues during the rest of the season. 

Indifference of fur-seals to carrion smells, blood, etc. — I have called attention to the singular 
fact, that the breeding-seals upon the rookeries and hauling grounds are not affected by the smell of blood or carrion 
arising from the killing-fields, or the stench of blubber fires which burn in the native villages. This trait is 
conclusively illustrated by the attitude of those two rookeries near the village of St. Paul; for the breeding-ground 
on this spit, at the head of the lagoon, is not more than forty yards from the great killing-grounds to the eastward; 
being separated from those spots of slaughter, and the seventy or eighty thousand rotting carcasses thereon, by a 
slough not more than ten yards wide. These seals can smell the blood and carcasses, upon this field, from the time 
they land in the spring until they leave in the autumn ; while the general southerly winds waft to them the odor 
and sounds of the village of St. Paul, not over 200 rods south of them, and above them, in plain sight. All this 
has no effect upon the seals — they know that they are not disturbed — and the rookery, the natives declare, has been 
slightly but steadily increasing. Therefore, with regard to surveying aud taking those boundaries assumed by the 
breeding-seals every year, at that point of high tide, and greatest expansion, which they assume between the Sth 
and loth of July, it is an entirely practicable and simple task. You can go everywhere on the skirts of the rookei ies 
almost within reaching distance, and they will greet you with quiet, inoffensive notice, and permit close, unbroken 
observation, when it is subdued and undemonstrative, paying very little attention to your approach. 

Yearly changes in the rookeries. — I believe the agents of the government there, are going to notice, 
every year, little changes here and there in the area and distribution of the rookeries; for instance, one of these 
breeding-grounds will not be quite as large this year as it was last, while another one, opposite, will be found 
somewhat larger aud expanded over the record which it made last season. In 1874, it was my pleasure and my 
profit to re-traverse all these rookeries of St. George and St. Paul, with my field notes of 1872 in my hand, making 
careful comparisons of their relative size as recorded then, and now. To show this peculiarity of enlarging a little 
here, and diminishing a little there, so characteristic of the breeding-grounds, I reproduce the following memoranda 
of 1874 : 

Northeast Point, July 18, 1874. 

Contrast on St. Paul between 1872 and 1874. — Quite a strip of ground near Webster's house has been deserted this season; but 
a small expansion is observed on Hutchinson's hill. The rest of the ground is as mapped iu 1872, with no noteworthy increase in any 
direction. The condition of the animals and their young, excellent; small irregularities in the massing of the families, due to the heavy 
rain this morning ; sea-lions about the same : none, however, on the west shore of the point. 

The aggregate of life on this great rookery is, therefore, about the same as in 1872; the " holluschickie ", or tillable seals, hauling 
as well and as numerously as before. The proportions of the different ages among them of two, three, aud four-year-olds, pretty well 
represented. 

Polavina, July 18, 1*74. 

Stands as it did in 1872; breeding- and hauling-grounds in excellent condition; the latter, on Polavina, are changing from the 
uplands down upon Polavina sand beach, trending for three miles toward northeast point. The numbers of the "holluschickie" on this 
ground of Polavina, where they have not been disturbed for some five years, to mention, in the way of taking, do not seem to be any 
greater than they are on the hauling-grounds adjacent to Northeast point and the village, from which they are driven almost every day 



68 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

during this season of killing. I notice also this remarkable characteristic of the "holluschickie"; no matter how cleanly the natives may 
tlrivo the seals off of a given piece of hauling-ground this morning, if the weather is favorable, to-morrow will see it covered again jnst 
as thickly; and, thus they drive in this manner from Zoltoi sands almost every day during the killing-season, generally finding on the 
succeeding morning more, or as many, seals as they drove off the previous dawn. This seems to indicate that the "holluschickie" 
recognize no particular point as favored over another at the island when they land, which is evidently in obedience to a general desire 
of coming ashore at such a suitable place as promises no crowding and no lighting. 

LukannON and Ketavie, July 19, 1874. 
Not materially changed in any respect from its condition at this time in 1872. 

Goebotcii, July 19, 1874. 
Just the same. Condition excellent. 

Keep, July 19, 1874. 
A slight contraction on the south sea-margin of this ground; compensated for by fresh expansion under the bluffs on the northwest 
side; not noteworthy in either instance. Condition excellent. 

Nah Speel, July 20, 1874. 
A diminution of one-half at least. Very few here this year. It is no placo for a rookery ; not a pistol-shot from the natives' houses, 
and all the natives' children fooling over the bluffs. 



No noteworthy change ; if any, a trifling increase. Condition good. Animals clean and lively. 
No perceptible change in this rookery from its good shape of 1872. The condition excellent. 



Lagoon, July 20, 1874. 
Tolstoi, July 21, 1874. 



Zapadnie, July 22, 1874. 
A remarkable extension or increase I note here, of 2,000 feet of shore line, with an average depth of 50 feet of breeding-ground, 
which has been built on to Upper Zapadnie, stretching out toward Tolstoi ; the upper rookery proper has not altered its bearings 
or proportions; the sand beach belt between it and Lower Zapadnie is not occupied by breeding-seals; and a fair track for the 
" holluschickie", 500 feet wide, left clear, over which they have traveled quite extensively this season, some 20,000 to 25,000 of them, at 
least, lying out around the old salt-house to-day. Lower Zapadnie has lost in a noteworthy degree about an average of 20 feet of its 
general depth, which, however, is more than compensated for by the swarming on the upper rookery. A small beginuing had been made 
for a rookery on the shore just southwest from Zapadnie lake, in 1872, but this year it has been substantially abandoned. 

Contrast on St. George between 1873 and 1874.— Au epitome of my notes for St. George, gives, as to 

this season of 1874, the following data for comparison with that of 1873 : 

Zapadnie, July 8, 1874. 
This rookery shows a slight increase upon the figures of last year, about 5,000. Fine condition. 

Starry Ateel, July 6, 1874. 
No noteworthy change from last year. 

North Rookery, July 6, 1874. 
No essential change from last year. Condition very good. 

Little Eastern, July 6, 1874. 
A slight diminution of some 2,000 or so. Condition excellent. 

Eastern Rookery, July 7, 1874. 

A small increase over last year of about 3,000, only trifling, however ; the aggregate seal-life here similar to that of last season, with 
the certainty of at least a small increase. The unusually early season, this year, brought the rookery " seeeatchio" on the ground very 
much in advance of the general time; they lauded as early as the 10th of April, while the arrival of the cows was as late as usual, 
corresponding to my observations during the past seasons. 

The general condition of the animals of all classes on St. George is most excellent — they are sleek, fat, and free from any disease. 

In this way it is plain that, practically, the exact condition of these animals can be noted every season; and, 
should a diminution be observed, due to an y cause, known or unknown, the killing can be promptly regulated, or 
stopped, to any required quota. 

Ten years have passed, with the end of last season, in which nearly 100,000 youDg males have been annually 
taken on St. Paul and St. George; 75,000 from the former, and 25,000 from the latter, as a rule; and we now 
have the experience with which to enlighten our understanding, and to make our statement correct. That 
affirmation is, that if the effect of annually killing 100,000 young male seals is either to increase or to diminish the 
seal-life on the Pribylov islands, it cannot be noticed ; it has not to a certainty wrought injury, and it has not 
promoted an increase. I advanced this hypothesis in 1873; and I now find it completely verified and confirmed 
by the united, intelligent testimony of those who have followed on the ground in my footsteps. 

Pecuniary talue of the seal-life on the Pribylov islands. — The theoretical value of these interests 
of the government on the Pribylov islands, represented by 2,500,000 to 3,000,000 iur-seals, male and female, in 
good condition, is not less than $10,000,000 or $12,000,000; taking; however, the females Nout of the question, 
and from this calculation, and looking at the " holluschickie " alone, as they really represent the only killable 
seals, then the commercial value of the same would be expressed by the sum of $1,800,000 to $2,000,000; this is a 
permanent principal invested here, which now nets the public treasury more than 15 per cent, annually ; a very 
handsome rate of interest, surely. 

Strange ignorance of their value in 1867.— Considering that this return is the only one made to the 
government by Alaska, since its trausfer> and that it was never taken into account; at first, by the most ardent 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 69 

advocates of the purchase of Russian-America, it is in itself highly creditable and interesting; to Senator Sumner 
the friends of the acquisition of this territory in 18G7, delegated the task of making the principal argument in its 
favor. Everything that was written in strange tongues was carefully translated for the choice bits of mention 
which could be found of Alaska's value. Hence his speech* on the subject possesses this interest: it is the 
embodiment of everything that could be scraped together, having the faintest shadow of authenticity, by all of the 
eager friends of the purchase, which gave the least idea of any valuable natural resources in Alaska; therefore, 
when, in summing all this up, he makes no reference whatever to the seal-islands, or the fur-seal itself, the 
extraordinary ignorance at home and abroad relative to the Pribylov islands can be well appreciated. 

Thoughts upon the possible movements of the fur-seals in the future. — As these animals live and 
breed upon the Pribylov islands, the foregoing studies of their habit declare certain natural conditions of landing- 
ground and climate to be necessary for their existence and perpetuation. From my surveys made upon the islands 
to the north, St. Matthew and St. Lawrence, together with the scientific and corroborating testimony of those who 
have visited all of the mainland coast of Alaska, and the islands contiguous, including the peninsula and the great 
Aleutian archipelago, I have no hesitation in stating that the fur-seal cannot breed, or rest for that matter, on any 
other laud than that now resorted to, which lies within our boundary lines; the natural obstacles are insuperable. 
Therefore, so far as our possessions extend, we have, in the Pribylov group, the only eligible land to which the fur- 
seal can repair for breeding; and on which, at St. Paul island alone, there is still room enough of unoccupied 
rookery-ground for the accommodation of twice as many seals as we find there to-day. But we must not forget a 
very important prospect; for, we know that to the westward, only 700 miles, and within the jurisdiction of Russia, 
arc two other seal-islands — one very large, on which the fur-seal regularly breeds also; and though from the meager 
testimony in my possession, compared with St. Paul, the fur-seal life upon them is small, still, if that land 
within the pale of the czar's dominion be as suitable for the reception of the rookeries as is that of St. Paul, then 
what guarantee have we that the seal-life on Copper and Bering islands, at some future time, may not be greatly 
augmented by a corresponding diminution of our own, with no other than natural causes operating? Certainly, if 
the ground on either Bering or Copper island, in the Commander group, is as well suited for the wants of the 
breeding fur-seal as is that exhibited by the Pribylov islands, then I say confidently that we may at any time note 
a diminution here and find a corresponding augmentation there; for I have clearly shown, in my chapter on the 
habits of these animals, that they are not so particularly attached to the respective places of their birth, but that 
they rather land with an instinctive appreciation of the fitness of that ground as a whole. 

Need of more definite knowledge concerning the Russian seal-islands. — If we, however, possess all 
the best suited ground, then we can count upon retaining the seal-life as we now have it, by a vast majority, and, in 
no other way; for it is not unlikely that some season may occur when an immense number of the fur-seals, which 
have lived during the last four or five years on the Pribylov islands, should be deflected from their usual feeding- 
range at sea by the shifting of schools of fish, and other abnormal causes, which would bring them around quite close 
to the Asiatic seal-grounds, in the spring; and the scent from those rookeries would act as a powerful stimulant 
and attraction for theni to land there, where the conditions for their breeding may be just as favorable as they 
desire. Such being the case, this diminution, therefore, which we would notice on the Pribylov group, might be the 
great increase observed at the Commander islands, and not due to any mismanagement on the part of the men in 
charge of these interests. Thus, it appears to me necessary that definite knowledge concerning the Commander 
islands and the Kuriles should be gathered. 

If we find, however, that the character of this Russian seal laud is restricted to narrow beach-margins, under 
bluffs, as at St. George, then we shall know that a great body of seals will never attempt to land there when they 
could not do so without suffering, and in violation of then' laws, during the breeding-season. Therefore, with this 
correct understanding to start on, we can then feel alarmed with good reason, should we ever observe any 
diminution, to a noteworthy degree, on our seal-islands of Bering sea. 

Possible deflection of seals in feeding. — I do not call attention to this subject with the slightest idea 
in my mind, as I write, of any such contingency arising, even for an indefinite time to come; but still I am sensible 
of the fact that it is possible for it to occur any season. But the seals undoubtedly feed on their pelagic fields in 
systematic routine of travel, from the time they leave the Pribylov islands until that of their return; therefore, in 
all probability, unless the fish upon which they are nourished suddenly become scarce in our waters and soundings, 
the seals will not change their base, as matters now progress ; but it is possible for the finny shoals and schools 
to be so deflected from their migration to and from their spawning-beds, as to carry this seal-life with it, as I have 
hinted above. Thus it cannot be superfluous to call up this question, so that it shall be prominent in discussion, 
and suggestion for future thought. 

Need of careful yearly examination. — In the meantime the movements of the seals upon the great 
breeding-rookeries of St. Paul and those of St. George should be faithfully noted and recorded every year ; and as 
time goes on this record will place the topic of their increase or diminution beyond all theory or cavil. 

* Speech on cession of Russian-America, U. S. Senate, 18(57 ; " Summary," p. 48. 



70 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



12. MANNER OF TAKING THE SEALS. 

Exhibit of all skins shipped from the Pribylov islands. — As an exhibit of the entire number of fur-seal 
skius taken for taxes and sale from the Pribylov islands, between 1797 and 18S0, inclusive, I present the following 
table, which, although it may vary from the true aggregate, during the long period of nearly one hundred years 
covered by it, I am nevertheless satisfied it is the best evidence of the kind which can be obtained. Prior to the 
year 18G8 it will be noticed that I have given only a series of estimates for the period antedating that year, as far 
back as 18G2. The reason for this is that I can find nowhere, in writing, an authenticated record of the catch. It 
was the policy of the old Russian company invariably to take more skins, every year, from these islands down to 
Sitka than they could profitably dispose of annually in the markets of the world; a large surplus being yearly left 
over, which were suffered to decay or be destroyed by moths, and subsequently thrown into the sea. I can only 
judge, therefore, of what they took in that period, from what I know they had on hand in their salt-house at St. 
George and St. Paul during 1S67, which was 40,000 to 48,000 skins; and this the natives told me was a larger 
average than they had taken for a great many years prior to that date. Hence, I have proportioned it back to the 
last record, which I find in Teehmainov, whose figures, embraced in the three periods, from 1790 to 1SG1, have been 
given as copied by him from the authentic archives of the old Russian company; he is careful to say, in this 
connection, that the exhibit does uot show all skins that were taken from the seal-islands, but only those which 
the Russians took for sale from Sitka. 

And, again, other Russian authors, rather than this historian of the Russian American Company, have said 
that immense numbers of fur-seal skins — hundreds of thousands — were frequently accumulated in the warehouses 
at Sitka only to decay and be destroyed. Their aggregate cannot be estimated within any bound of accuracy, and 
it is not in the sum total of the following table. What we have taken on the island, since 1808, is presented below, 
almost correct. In the appendix, where I give a short digest of Professor Nordenskiold's visit to Bering 
island, will be found another table showing the number of skins taken from those Russian Commander islands. 
In the following table, relative to the Pribylov group, it will be noticed that there is a gap of ten years, between 1780, 
the date of their discovery, and 1805, the time of the earliest Russian record. How many were taken then, there 
is not the faintest evidence in black and white; but we do know that from the time of the discovery of the Pribylov 
islands up to 1799, the taking of fur-seals on both of these islands progressed without count or lists, and without 
any responsible head or director; because there were then, upon those islands, seven or eight different companies, 
represented by as many agents or leaders, and all of them vied one with the other in taking as many fur-seals as 
they could : * 

. Fur-seal skins taken from the Prybilov islands for shipment and sale. 



Period. 


Number of 
skins. 


Period. 


Number of 
skins. 


Period. 


Number of 
skins. 


Period. 


Number of 
skins. 


* 1707-1821 (24 years) . . . 


1, 232, 374 
458, 502 
372, 000 
1 20, 000 
825,000 




? 26, 000 
! 40, 000 
? 42, 000 
? 48, 000 
242, 000 
87, 000 




9,965 
63, 000 
99, 000 
99, 630 
99, 820 
99, 500 




99, 000 








* 1842-1861 (19 years) . . . 
















99, 968 
















Total, 1797 to 1880 . . 

















k Including about 5,000 annually from tbo Commander islands. 

The manner in which the seals are taken. — By reference to the habit of the fur-seal, which I have 
discussed at length, it is now plain and beyond doubt, that two-thirds of all the males which are born, ami they 
are equal in numbers to the females born, are never permitted by the remaining third, strongest by natural 
selection, to land upon the same breeding-ground with the females, which always herd thereupon en masse. Hence, 
this great band of "bachelor" seals, or "holluschickie", so fitly termed, when it visits the island is obliged to live 
apart entirely — sometimes, and some places, miles away from the rookeries; and, in this admirably perfect method 
of nature are those seals which can be properly killed without injury to the rookeries, selected and held aside by 
their own volition, so that the natives can visit and take them without disturbing, in the least degree, the entire 
quiet of the breeding-grounds, where the stock is perpetuated. 

The manner in which the natives capture and drive the "holluschickie" up from the hauling-grounds to the 
slaughter-fields near the two villages of St. Paul and St. George, and elsewhere on the islands, cannot be improved 

*Tlie attempt, on my part, to get an authentic list of the numbers of fur-seals slain upon the Pribylov islands, prior to 1868, lias 
simply been, to my mind, a partial failure. My investigation and search for such record, has satisfied me that it docs not exist; 
memoranda of shipments only, each season, were made by the. age nts of the Russian company when the vessels took those skins from the 
seal-islands to Sitka ; and of these skins again, count was only made of such as were exported to China or Russia, no mention being made 
anywhere of the number which was consumed in Alaska by the company's large force of attache's, or else destroyed at New Archangel. 
This method of accounting for the yield from the Pribylovs from 1806 or 1817 up to 1867, naturally confuses a correct determination as to 
the sum total — renders it, perhaps, very inaccurate. This explanation is, at least, due to the reader. 





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THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 71 

upon. It is ill this way: at the beginning of every sealing-season, that is, during May and June, large bodies of the 
young "bachelor" seals do not haul up on land very far from the water — a few rods at the most — and, when these 
first arrivals are sought after, the natives, in capturing them, are obliged to approach slyly and run quickly between 
the dozing seals and the surf, before they can take alarm and bolt into the sea; in this manner a dozen Aleuts, 
running down the sand beach of English bay, in the early morning of some June day, will turn back from the water 
thousands of seals, just as the mold-board of a plow lays over and back a furrow of earth. When the sleeping seals 
ate first startled, tbey arise, and, seeing men between them and the water, immediately turn, lope, and scramble 
rapidly back up and over the land; the natives then leisurely walk on the Hanks and in the rear of the drove thus 
secured, directing and driving it over to the killing-grounds, close by the village.* 

Progression of a seal-drive. — A drove of seals on hard or firm grassy ground, in cool and moist weather, 
may be driven with safety at the rate of half a mile an hour; they can be urged along, with the expenditure of a 
great many lives, however, at the speed of a mile or a mile and a quarter per hour; but this is seldom done. An 
old bull seal, fat and unwieldy, cannot travel with the younger ones, though it can lope or gallop as it starts across 
the ground as fast as an ordiuary man can run, over 100 yards; but then it fails utterly, falls to the earth supine, 
entirely exhausted, hot, and gasping for breath. 

The "holluschickie" are urged along over the path leading to the killing-grounds with very little trouble, and 
require only three or four men to guide and secure as many thousand at a time. They are permitted frequently to 
halt and cool off, as heating them injures their fur. These seal-halts on the road always impressed me with a species 
of sentimeutalism and regard for the creatures themselves. The men dropping back for a few moments, the awkward 
shambling and scuffling of the march at once ceases, and the seals stop in their tracks to fan themselves with their 
hind-flippers, while their heaving flanks give rise to subdued panting sounds. As soon as they apparently cease to 
gasp for want of breath, and are cooled off comparatively, the natives step up once more, clatter a few bones with a 
shout along the line, and the seal-shamble begins again— their march to death and the markets of the world is taken 
up anew. 

Docility of fur-seals when driven.— I was also impressed by the singular docility and amiability of these 
animals when driven along the road; they never show fight any more than a flock of sheep would do; if, however, a 
few old seals get mixed in, they usually get so weary that they prefer to come to a stand-still and fight rather than 
move; otherwise no sign whatever of resistance is made by the drove from the moment it is intercepted, and turned 
up from the hauling-grounds, to the time of its destruction at the hands of the sealing-gang. 

This disposition of the old seals to fight rather than endure the pantiug torture of travel, is of great advantage 
to all parties concerned; for they are worthless commercially, and the natives are only too glad to let them drop 
behind, where they remain unmolested, eventually returning to the sea. The fur on them is of little or no value; 
their under wool being very much shorter, coarser, and more scant than in the younger; especially so on the 
posterior parts along the median line of the back. 

Change in pelage.— This change for the worse or deterioration of the pelage of the fur-seal takes place, as 
a rule, in the fifth year of their age; it is thickest and finest in texture during the third and fourth year of life; 
hence, in driving the seals on St. Paul and St. George up from the hauling-grounds the natives make, as far as 
practicable, a selection from males of that age. 

*Tho task of getting up early in the morning, and going out to the several hauling-grounds, closely adjacent, is really all there is 
of the labor involved in securing the number of seals required for the day's work on the killing-grounds. The two, three, or four natives 
upon whom, in rotation, thisduty is devolved by the order of their chief, rise at first glimpse of dawn, between 1 and 2 o'clock, and hasten 
over to Lukaunon, Tolstoi, or Zoltoi, as the ease may be, "walk out" their "holluschickie", and have them duly on the slaughtering-field 
before 6 or 7 o'clock, as a rule, in the morning. In favorable weather the "drive" from Tolstoi consumes two and a half to three hours' 
time; from Lukannon, about two hours, and is often done in an hour and a half; while Zoltoi is so near by that the time is merely 
nominal. 

I heard a great deal of talk among the white residents of St. Paul, when I first landed and the sealing-season opened, about the 
necessity of "resting" the hauling-grounds; in other words, they said that if the seals were driven in repeated daily rotation from any 
one of the hauling-grounds, that this would so disturb these animals as to prevent their coming to any extent again thereon, during the 
rest of the season. This theory seemed rational enough to me at the beginning of my investigations, and I was not disposed to qucstiou 
its accuracy; but, subsequent observation directed to this point particularly, satisfied me, and the sealers themselves with whom I was 
associated, that the driving of the seals had no effect whatever upon the hauling which took place soon or immediately after the field, for 
the hour, had been swept clean of seals by the drivers. If the weather was favorable for landing, i. «., cool, moist, and foggy, the' fresh 
hauling of the "holluschickie" would cover the bare grounds again in a very short space of time— sometimes in a few hours after the 
driving of every seal from Zoltoi sands over to the killing-fields adjacent, those dunes and the beach in question would be swarming 
anew with fresh arrivals. If, however, the weather is abnormally warm and sunny, during its prevalence, even if for several consecutive 
days, no seals to speak of will haul out on the emptied space; indeed, if these "holluschickie" had not been taken away by man from 
Zoltoi or any other hauling-ground on the islands when "tayopli" weather prevailed, most of those seals would have vacated their 
terrestrial loafing places for the cooler embraces of the sea. 

The importance of clearly understanding this fact as to the readiness of the "holluschickie" to haul promptly out on steadily 
"swept" ground, provided the weather is inviting, is very great; because, when not understood, it was deemed necessary, even as late as 
the season of 1872, to "rest" the hauling-grounds near the village (from which all the driving has been made since), and make trips to 
far away Polavina and distant Zapadnie— an unnecessary expenditure of human time, and a causeless infliction of physical misery upon 
phociue hacks and flippers. 



72 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

It is quite impossible, however, to get them all of one age without an extraordinary amount of stir and bustle, 
which the Aleuts do not like to precipitate; hence the drive will be fouud to consist usually of a bare majority of 
three and four-year-olds, the rest being two-year-olds principally, and a very few, at wide intervals, live-year-olds, 
the yearlings seldom ever getting mixed up. 

Method op land travel.— As the drove progresses along the path to the slaughtering grounds, the seals all 
move in about the same way; they go ahead with a kind of walking step and a sliding, shambling gallop. The 
progression of the whole caravan is a succession of starts, spasmodic and irregular, made every few minutes, the 
seals pausing to catch their breath, and make, as it were, a plaintive survey and mute protest. Every now and 
then a seal will get weak in the lumbar region, then drag its posteriors along for a short distance, finally drop 
breathless and exhausted, quivering and panting, not to revive for hours— days, perhaps — and often never. During 
the driest driving-days, or those days when the temperature does not combine with wet fog to keep the path moist 
and cool, quite a large number of the weakest animals in the drove will be thus laid out and left on the track. If 
one of these prostrate seals is not too much heated at the time, the native driver usually taps the beast over the 
head and removes its skin.* 

Prostration op pur-seals by heat. — This prostration from exertion will always happen, no matter how 
carefully they are driven; and in the longer drives, such as two and a half, and five miles from Zapadnie on the 
west, or Polavina on the north, to the village at St. Paul, as much as three or four per cent, of the whole drive will 
be thus dropped on the road; hence I feel satisfied, from my observation and close attention to this feature, that a 
considerable number of those that are thus rejected from the drove, and are able to rally and return to the water, 
die subsequently from internal injuries sustained on the trip, superinduced by this over-exertion. I, therefore, 
think it highly improper and impolitic to extend drives of the "holluschickie" over any distance on St. Paul island 
exceeding a mile, or a mile and a half; it is better for all parties concerned, and the business too, that salt-houses 
be erected, and killing-grounds established contiguous and to all of the great hauling-grounds, two miles distant 
from the village on St. Paul island, should the business ever be developed above the present limit; or should the 
exigencies of the future require a quota from all these places, in order to make up the 100,000 which may be 
lawfully taken. 

Abundant supply op "holluschickie". — As matters are to-day, 100,000 seals alone on St. Paul can be taken 
and skinned in less than forty working days, within a radius of one mile and a half from the village, and from the 
salt-house at Northeast point; hence the driving, with the exception of two experimental droves which I witnessed 
in 1872, has never been made from longer distances than Tolstoi to the eastward, Lukannon to the northward, and 
Zoltoi to the southward of the killing-grounds at St. Paul village. Should, however, an abnormal season recur, in 
which the larger proportion of days during the right period for taking the skins be warmish and dry, it might be 
necessary, in order to get even 75,000 seals within the twenty-eight or thirty days of their prime condition, for drives 
to be made from the other great hauling-grounds to the westward and northward, which are now, and have been for 
the last ten years, entirely unnoticed by the sealers. 

Killing the seals. — The seals, when finally driven up on those flats between the east landing and the 
village, and almost under the windows of the dwellings, are herded there until cool and rested. The drives are 
usually made very early in the morning, at the first breaking of day, which is half-past one to two o'clock of June 
and July T in these latitudes. They arrive, and cool off on the slaughtering-grounds, so that by six or seven o'clock, 
after breakfast, the able-bodied male population turn out from the village and go down to engage in the work 
of slaughter. The men are dressed in their ordinary working-garb of thick flannel shirts, stout cassimere or 
canvas pants, over which the "tarbossa" boots are drawn; if it rains they wear their "kamlaikas", made of the 
intestines and throats of the sea-lion and fur-seal. Thus dressed, they are each armed with a club, a stout oaken 
or hickory bludgeon, which have been made particularly for the purpose at New London, Connecticut, and imported 
here for this especial service. These sealing clubs are about five or six feet in length, three inches in diameter at their 
heads, and the thickness of a man's forearm where they are grasped by the hands. Each native also has his stabbing- 
kuife, his skinuing-kuife, and his whetstone; these are laid upon the grass convenient, when the work of braining 
or knocking the seals down is in progress. This is all the apparatus which they have for killing and skinning. 

The killing gang at work. — When the men gather for work they are under the control of their chosen 
foremen or chiefs; usually on St. Paul, divided into two working parties at the village, and a sub-party at 
Northeast point, where another salt-house and slaughtering-field is established. At the signal of the chief the 
work of the day begins by the men stepping into the drove, corraled on the flats; and, driving out from it 100 or 

* The fur-seal, like all of the pinnipeds, has no sweat-glands ; hence, when it is heated, it cools off by the same process of panting which 
is so characteristic of the dog, accompanied by the fanning that I have hitherto fully described; the heavy breathing and low granting of 
a tired drove of seals, on a warmer day than usual, can be heard several hundred yards away. It is surprising how quickly the hair and 
fur will come out of the skin of a blood-heated seal — literally rubs bodily off at a touch of the finger. A fine specimen of a three-year-old 
" holluschak " fell in its tracks at the head of the lagoon while being driven to the village killing-grouuds. I asked that it be skinned with 
special reference to mounting; accordingly a native was sent for, who was on the spot, knife in hand, within less than 30 minutes from 
the moment that this seal fell in the road; yet, soon after he had got fairly to work, patches of the fur and hair came off here and there 
wherever he chanced to clutch the skin. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



73 



150 seals: at a time, make what they call a "pod", which they surround in a circle, huddling the seals one on another 
as they narrow it down, until they are directly within reach and under their clubs. Then the chief, after he has 
east his experienced eye over the straggling, writhing' "kautickie" in the center, passes the word that such and 
such a seal is bitten, that such and such a seal is too young-, that such and such a seal is too old; the attention 
of his men being called to these points, he gives the word "strike", and instantly the heavy clubs come down all 
around, and every one that is eligible is stretched out stunned and motionless, in less time, really, than I take to 
tell it. Those seals spared by order of the chief, now struggle from under and over the bodies of their insensible 
companions and pass, hustled off by the natives, back to the sea.* 

Metiiod of Aleuts in skinning pur-seals. — The clubs are dropped, the men seize the prostrate seals by 
the hind-flippers, and drag them out, 
so they are spread on tbe ground with- 
out touching each other; then every 
sealer takes his knife and drives it 
into the heart at a point between the 
fore-flippers of each stunned form ; the 
blood gushes forth, and the quivering 
of the animal presently ceases. A 
single stroke of a heavy oak blud- 
geon, well and fairly delivered, will 
crush in at once the slight, thin bones 
of a fur-seal's skull, and lay the crea- 
ture out almost lifeless. These blows 
are, however, usually repeated two or 
three times with each animal, but they 
are very quickly done. The bleeding, 
which is immediately effected, is so 
speedily undertaken in order that the 
strange reaction, which the sealers 
call "heating", shall be delayed for 
half an hour or so, or uutil the seals 
can all be drawn out, and laid iu some 
disposition for skinning. 

I have noticed that within less 
than thirty minutes from the time a 
perfectly sound seal was knocked 
down, it had so "heated", owing to 
the day being warmer and drier than 
usual, that, when touching it with my 
foot, great patches of hair and fur 
scaled off. This is a rather excep- 
tionally rapid metamorphosis — it will, 
however, take place in every instance, 
within an hour, or an hour and a half 
on these warm days, after the first blow is struck, and the seal is quiet iu death ; hence no time is lost by the prudent 
chief in directing the removal of the skins as rapidly as the seals are knocked down and dragged out. If it is a cool 
day, after bleeding the first "pod" which has been prostrated in the manner described, and after carefully drawing 
the slain from the heap in which they have fallen, so that the bodies will spread over the ground just free from 
touching one another, they turn to and strike down another "pod"; and so on, until a whole thousand or two are laid 
out, or the drove, as corraled, is finished. The day, however, must be raw and cold for this wholesale method. Then, 
after killing, they turn to work, and skin ; but, if it is a warm day, every pod is skinned as soon as it is knocked down. 

The labor of skinning is exceedingly severe; and is trying even to au expert, demanding long practice ere the 
muscles of the back and thighs are so developed as to permit a man to bend down to, and finish well, a fair day's 

*The aim anil force with which the native directs his blow, determines the death of the seal: if struck direct and violently, a single 
stroke is enough; the seals' heads are stricken so hard sometimes that those erystaline lenses to their eyes fly oat from the orbital 
sockets like hail-stones, or little pebbles, and frequently struck me sharply iu the face, or elsewhere, while I stood near by watching the 
killing-gang at work. 

A singular lurid green light suddenly suffuses the eye of the fur-seal at intervals when it is very much excited, as the "podding" for 
the clubbers is in progress ; and, at the moment when last raising its head it sees the uplifted bludgeons on every hand above, fear seems 
then for the first time to possess it and to instantly gild its eye iu this strange manner. When the seal is brained in this state of optical 
coloration, I have noticed that the opalescent tinting remained well defined for many hours or a whole day alter death; these remarkable 
flashes are very characteristic to the eyes of the old males during their hurly-burly on the rookeries, but never appear in the younger 
classes unless as just described, as far as I could observe. 




The flense J cartas of a fur-seal. 



74 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

work. The knives used by the natives for skinning are ordinary kitchen or case-handle butcher-knives. They are 
sharpened to cutting edges as keen as razors ; but, something about the skins of the seal, perhaps flue commhmred 
sand along the abdomen, so dulls these knives, as the natives work, that they are constantly obliged to whet them. 

The body of the seal, preparatory to skinning, is rolled over and balanced squarely ou its back ; then the 
native makes a single swift cut through tbe skin down along the neck, chest, and belly, from the lower jaw to the 
root of the tail, usiug, for this purpose, his long stabbing knife.* The fore- aud hind-flippers are then successively 
lifted, as the man straddles the seal and stoops down to his work over it, and a sweeping circular incision is made 
through the skin on them just at the point where the body-fur ends ; then, seizing a flap of the hide on either one 
side or the other of the abdomen, the man proceeds with his smaller, shorter butcher-knife, rapidly to cut the skin, 
clean and free from the body and blubber, which he rolls over and out from the hide by hauling up on it as he 
advances with his work, standing all this time stooped over the carcass so that his hands are but slightly above it, 
or the ground. This operation of skinning a fair-sized " holluschak " takes the best men only one minute and a 
half; but the average time made by the gang on the ground is about four minutes to the seal. Nothing is left of 
the skin upon the carcass, save a small patch of each upper lip on which the coarse mustache grows, the skin on 
the tip of the lower jaw, the insignificant tail,t together with the bare hide of the flippers. 

Blubber of fur-seal: Unpleasant odor. — On the removal of the skin from the body of the fur seal, 
the entire surface of the carcass is covered with a more or less dense layer, or envelope, of a soft, oily, fat blubber, 
which in turn completely conceals the muscles or flesh of the trunk and neck; this fatty substance, which we now 
see, resembles that met with in the seals geuerally everywhere, only possessing that strange peculiarity not shared 
by any other of its kind, of being positively overbearing and offensive in odor to the unaccustomed human nostril. 
The rotting, sloughing carcasses around about did not, when stirred up, affect me more unpleasantly than did 
this strong, sickening smell of the fur-seal blubber. It has a character and appearance intermediate between those 
belonging to the adipose tissue found on the bodies of cetacea and some carnivora. 

This continuous envelope, of blubber, to the bodies of the " kolluschickie" is thickest in deposit at those points 
upon the breast between the fore-flippers, reaching entirely around and over the shoulders, where it is from one inch 
to a little over in depth. Upon the outer side of the chest it is not half an inch in thickness, frequently not more 
than a quarter; and it thins out considerably as it reaches the median line of the back. The neck and head are clad 
by an unbroken continuation of the same material, which varies from one-half to one-quarter of an inch in depth. 
Toward the middle line of the abdominal region there is a layer of relative greater thickness. This is coextensive 
with the sterno pectoral mass; but it does not begin to retain its volume as it extends backward, where this 
fatty investment of the carcass upon the loins, buttocks, and hinder limbs fades out finer than on the pectoro- 
abdominal parts, and assumes a thickening corresponding to the depth on the cervical and dorsal regions. As it 

*When turning the stunned and senseless carcasses, the only physical danger of which the sealers run the slightest risk, during the 
■whole circuit of their work, occurs thus: at this moment the prone and quivering body of the "holluschak" is not wholly inert, perhaps, 
though it is niue times out of ten; and, as the native takes hold of a fore-Hipper to jerk the carcass over on to its hack, the half-brained 
seal rouses, snaps suddenly and viciously, often biting the hands or legs of the unwary skinners, who then come leisurely and unconcernedly 
up into the surgeon's office at the village, for bandages, etc. ; a few men are bitten every day or two during the season on the islands, in 
this manner, but I have never learned of any serious result following any case. 

The sealers, as might be expected, become exceedingly expert in keeping their knives sharp, putting edges on them as keen as razors, 
and in an instant detect any dullness, by passing the balls of their thumbs over the suspected edges to the blades. 

The white sealers of the Antarctic always used the orthodox butchers' " steel" in sharpening their knives, but these natives never 
have; and, probably never will abandon those little whet-stones above referred to. 

During the Russian management, and throughout the strife in killing by our own people in 1868, a very large number of the skins 
were cut through, here and there, by the slipping of the natives' knives, when they were taking them from the carcasses, and ''flensing" 
them from the superabundance, iu spots, of blubber. These knife-cuts through the skin, no matter how slight, give great annoyance to 
the dresser; hence they are always marked down in price. The prompt scrutiny of each skin on the islands, by the agent of the Alaska 
Commercial company, who rejects every one of them thus injured, has caused the natives to exercise greater care, and the number now so 
damaged, every season, is absolutely trifling. 

Another source of small loss is due to a habit which the "holluschickie " have of occasionally biting one another when they are being 
urged along in the drives, and thus crowded once in a while one upon the other ; usually these examples of "zoobaden" are detected by 
the natives prior to the "knocking down ", and spared ; yet those which have been nipped on the chest or abdomen cannot be thus noticed; 
and, until the skin is lifted, the damage is not apprehended. 

t This tail of the fur-seal is just a suggestion of the article, and that is all. Unlike the abbreviated caudal extremities of the bear or 
the rabbit, it does not seem to be under the slightest control of its owner — at least I never could see it move to any appreciable degree, when 
the seal is in action on laud. Certainly there is no service required of it, but it does appear to me rather singular that none of the 
changeful moods of CaUorhinus are capable of giving rise to even a tremor in its short stump of a tail. It is never raised or depressed, 
and, in fact, amonnts to a mere excresence, which many casual observers would not notice. The shrinking, twitching movements of the 
seal's skin, here and there at irregular intervals, are especially noticed when that animal is asleep, so that even when awake I believe that 
the Hematological motion is an involuntary one. The tail of the sea-lion is equally inconsequential ; that of the walrus, even more so, 
while Phoca vitulina has one a trifle longer, relatively, and much stouter— fleshier than that of the fur-seal. 

I found that the natives here were pronounced evolutionists, as are all the many Indian tribes.with which I have been thrown in 
contact during my travels from Mexico to the head of the Stickeen river. They declare that their remote ancestry undoubtedly were 
fur-seals; indeed, there is a better showing for the brain cases of the fur-seal over that of the monkey's skull as to weight with reference 
to physical bulk; while their tails are as short or even shorter than most of the anthropoid apes. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 75 

descends on the limbs this blubber thins out very perceptibly ; and, when reaching the flippers it almost entirely 
disappears, giving way to a glistening aureolar tissue, while the flipper shin finally descends in turn to adhere 
closely and firmly to the tendinous ligamentary structures beneath, which constitute the tips of the Pinnijpedia. 

The flesh and the muscles are not lined between, or within, by fat of any kind. Tins blubber envelope contains 
it all with one exception — that which is found in the folds of the small intestine and about the kidneys, where there 
is an abundant secretion of a harder, whiter, though still offensive, fat. 

Flesh of fur-seal as an article of diet. — It is quite natural for our people, when they first eat a meal 
on the Pribylov islands, to ask questions in regard to what seal meat looks and tastes like; some of the white 
residents will answer, saying that they are very loud of it, cooked so and so; others will reply that in no shape 
or manner can they stomach the dish. The inquirers must needs try the effect on their own palates. I frankly 
confess that I had a slight prejudice against seal meat at first, having preconceived ideas that it would be fishy 
in flavor, but I soou satisfied myself to the contrary, and found that the flesh of young seals, not over three years 
old was full as appetizing and toothsome as most of the beef, mutton, and pork, I was accustomed to at home ; the 
following precautions must be rigidly observed, however, by the cook who prepares fur-seal steaks and sausage 
balls for our delectation and subsistence — he will fail, if he does not: 

1st. The meat must be perfectly cleaned of every vestige of blubber or fat, no matter how slight. 

2d. Cut the flesh, then, into very thin steaks or slices, and soak them from six to twelve hours in salt and 
water (a tablespoon of fine salt to a quart of fresh water) ; this whitens the meat, and removes the residuum of dark 
venous blood that will otherwise give a slightly disagreeable taste, hardly definable, though existing. 

3d. Fry these steaks, or stew them a la mode, with a few thin slices of sweet "breakfast" bacon, seasoning with 
pepper and salt; a rich brown gravy follows the cooking of the meat; serve hot, and it is, strictly judged, a very 
excellent meal for the daintiest feeder — and I hereby recommend it confidently as a safe venture for any newcomer 
to make. 

Meat of the sea-lion. — The flesh of young sea-lions is still better than that of the fur-seal, while the natives 
say that the meat of the hair-seal (Phoca vitulina) is superior to both, being more juicy ; fur-seal meat is exceedingly 
dry, hence the necessity of putting bacon into the frying-pan or stew-pot with it ; sea-lion flesh is an improvement 
in this respect, and also that its fat, strange to say, is wholly clear, white, and inodorous, while the blubber of the 
"holluschickie" is sickening to the smell, and will, niue times out of ten, cause any civilized stomach to throw it up 
as quickly as it was swallowed. The natives, however, eat a great deal of it simply because they are too lazy to 
clean their fur-seal cuts, and not because they really relish it. 

In this counectiou it may be well to add, that the liver of both Gallorhinus and Eumetopias is sweet and whole- 
some; or, in other words, it is as good as liver usually is in Fulton market; the tongues are small, white, and fat ; 
they are regularly cut out to some extent, and salted in ordinary water-buckets for exportation to curious friends; 
they have but slight claim to gastronomic favor. The natives are, however, very partial to the liver; but, though 
they like the tongues, yet they are too lazy to prepare them. A few of them, in obedience to pressing and prayer- 
ful appeals from relatives at Oonalashka, do exert themselves enough every season to undergo the extra labor of 
putting up a few barrels of fresh salted seal meat, which, being carried down to Illoolook by the company's vessels, 
affords a delightful variation to the steady and monotonous codfish diet of the Aleutian islanders. 

Other authorities on hair-seal meat. — An old writer, in describing men and things in the western 
islands of Scotland (Martin, 1716), does not give the same evidence of appreciation. He says that the Scotch there 
"salt the seals with the ashes of burnt sea-ware [algoid melanosperime], and say they are good food. The vulgar 
eat them commonly in the spring time, with a long pointed stick instead of a fork, to prevent the strong smell which 
their hands otherwise would have for several hours afterward. The flesh and broth of fresh young seals is, by 
experience, known to be pectoral. The meat is astringent, and used as an effectual remedy against diarrhea and 
dysentery. The liver of a seal being dried and pulverized, and afterward a little of it drank with milk, aqmoitae, 
or red wine, is also good against fluxes". 

Again, "the seal, though esteemed only fit for the vulgar, is also eaten by persons of distinction, though under 
a different name, to wit, ham"; also, a pleasant smile involuntarily arises to the face of the naturalist, when he learns 
from the same old writer that "the popish vulgar of the islands to the southward from this [island] eat these seals 
in Lent instead offish". Martin refers to Phoca feetida, I think. 

Natives' use of fur-seal flesh medicinally. — I could not learn from the natives on the Pribylov islands 
that they held any notions of medicinal virtue whatever in regard to the flesh of the fur-seal or other pinnipeds 
indigenous. They do make certain special uses of the liver, gall, testes, etc., but the exact application I could not 
satisfactorily determine. They considered the establishment of our surgeon and pharmacy as a direct vote of censure 
upon their therapeutics, and were too willing to forget what they knew whenever I asked leading questions on the 
subject. 

First establishment of a pharmacy : Natives their own st GBGEONS.— The natives, prior to the transfer 
of the territory, as well as the agents and employes of the old Russian company, were compelled to do their own 
doctoring and surgery as best they knew how, and with the scanty supply of natural and artificial resource at their 
command. They may be, therefore, truly described as having been helpless in the presence of serious physical ailment. 



76 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

When our government took possession of Alaska, they brought with them, however, the first physicians and 
supplies that had ever had lodgment on the Pribylov islands, and when these officers took their departure with the 
troops, their services and stores were naturally suggested as desirable of continuance. Accordingly, the Alaska 
Commercial Company, when it took the business control of the islands, 1870-'71, promptly established a doctor and 
a pharmacy on each islaud, and latterly a small hospital has been erected and sustained by it at St. Paul. These 
physicians are agents of the company, under salary, and are directed to give their time and attention to all 
illness on either island, free of charge; also, dispensing needful medicines, etc., gratis. Dr. Otto Cramer, a native 
of Berlin, was the surgeon on St. Paul during my sojourn there, and I recall his sad death at sea in 1875 with 
unfeigned regret, for he was a singularly well-read gentleman and an accomplished physician, musician, and 
scholarly in his mind. He was a victim to acute melancholia; some heavy shadow was hanging from his early life 
over him which none of us cared to lift. 

Stolid behavior of natives when injured. — Dr. Cramer often said, speaking of the peculiarities of the 
natives when sick at St. Paul, that they never notified him of their illness until the diseases had usually got so firm 
hold of the patients as to baffle all medical relief. He complained that they would let the old shamanistic doctress 
of the village charm, drug, and weary the sick until death seemed imminent, and then stolidly send for him. " Ochta, 
nieiu Gott! too late, too late, such people!" he would usually conclude his account of this case or that, as it might be. 

Native methods op cooking. — The native cooking is now all done in their houses, on small cast-iron stoves 
of American pattern and make. In olden times the unavoidable use of fur-seal blubber in culinary operations 
caused the erection, outside of most "barrabaras", of a small sod-walled and low dirt-roofed kitchen, in which the 
strong-smelling blubber-fires were kindled. Indifferent as the native became to smells and smoke in the filthy life 
of early days upon these islands, yet the acrid, stifling, asthmatic effect of the blubber clouds never failed to punish 
him whenever he attempted to make use of such a fire in his living-room. Most of these "cookknets", or 
"povarniks", were in full blast when I first landed at St. Paul, and coming frequently into range of their smoky 
effluvium, I was infinitely annoyed; now, however, the complete substitution of new frame-houses for the " barrabkies" 
has, I believe, caused a perfect abatement of the nuisance. 

The people of the seal-islands indulge in very liberal quantities of boiled seal meat and tea ; these staples, 
together with hard bread or soda crackers, form the routine of their bill of fare, as far as cooking goes, varied 
at wide intervals by boiled halibut, stewed or roasted birds, and the queerly-scrambled eggs of the same. The 
more ancient these oological viands, the better for Aleutian gusto. Some of the women, however, have learned 
to bake bread and biscuits, but this consumes too much of the scant fuel at their disposal to be a popular or general 
practice among them. They sit at tables in their houses now, on benches, and eat from plates with knives and 
forks, instead of squatting around an iron pot on the "barrabkie" floor to dip in sans ceremonie with spoons, ladles, 
and grimy fingers as in "ye olden tyine". They have, however, one sad failing developed by this march to a higher 
civilization, and that is the determination of the Aleutian dishwasher to use cold water on her greasy plates. 

Great size oe the fur-seal's heart: Its expanded lungs. — In opening many hundreds of these freshly- 
killed seals, after skinning, while searching in vain for supposed food-contents of their stomachs, I was impressed by 
the exceeding size of the heart, and the perfect organization of the lungs; while the volume of blood in proportion to 
the size and weight is, I am sure, greater in the fur-seal than in any other animal. The enormous lungs, and the 
veins laid bare, showed their beautiful adaptation to frequent aquatic submergence, by their great capacity toward 
the root of the heart, and by the enormous cava or hepatic reservoir. The widened aortic arch and the diminution 
of the abdominal aorta modify the blood-current, of which the vast muscular apparatus of the forequarters and the 
large brain must receive the major share of supply as it comes from the enlarged heart.* 

13. MANNER OP CARING POP AND SHIPPING THE PUR-SEAL SKINS. 

Curpng the raw skins. — The skins are taken from the field to the salt-house, where they are laid out, after 
being again carefully examined, one upon another, "hair to fat", like so many sheets of paper, with salt profusely 
spread upon the fleshy sides as they are piled up in the "kenches", or bins.t The salt-house is a large barn-like 
frame structure, so built as to afford one-third of its width in the center, from end to end, clear and open as a passage- 
way; while on each side are rows of stanchions, with sliding planks, which are taken down and put up in the form 
of deep bins, or boxes — "kenches," the sealers call them. As the pile of skins is laid at the bottom of an empty 
"kench", and salt thrown in on the outer edges, these planks are also put in place, so that the salt may be kept 
intact until the bin is filled as high up as a man can toss the skins. After lying two or three weeks in this style 

* I had prepared many notes upon the muscular anatomy of the fur-seal and the sea-lion ; but I find that it has been anticipated so 
well by what Dr. Murie published in the transactions of the Zoological Society of London, 1869-'72, as to render their reproduction here 
quite superfluous. These observations of Dr. Murie constitute one of the most valuable contributions to the kuowledgo of the anatomy 
of this animal that has ever been made. He carefully dissected a young male sea-lion after its death, which had been brought to the 
Zoological Society's gardens from the Falkland islands. 

tTlie practice of curing in early times was quite different from this rapid and effective process of salting. The skins were then all 
air-dried; pegged out, when "greeu", upon the grouud, or else stretched upon a wooden trellis or frame, which stood like a rude fence 



Monograph— SEAL- ISLANDS. 




KENCHING FUR-SEAL SKINS. 



Interior of the Salt-house at the village, St. Paul Island. Natives planting the pelts in the curing 
bins or " kenches ;" salting, assorting, etc. 




THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 77 

they become "pickled", and they are suited then at any time to be taken up and rolled into bundles, of two skins 
to the package, with the hairy Bide out, tightly corded, ready for shipment from the islands. 

AVERAGE weight of RAW skins. — The average weight of a two-year-old skin is 5$ pounds; of a three- 
year-old skin, 7 pounds; and, of a four-year-old skin, 12 pounds; so that as the major portion of the catch is two or 
three year-olds, these buudles of two skius each have an average weight of from 12 to 15 pounds. In this shape 
they go into the hold of the company's steamer at St. Paul,* and are counted out from it in San Francisco. Then 
they are either at once skipped to London by the Isthmus of Panama in the same shape, only packed up in huge 
hogsheads of from 20 to 40 bundles to the package, or expressed by railroad, via New York, to the same destination. 

Packing skins fok shipment. — The work of bundling the skins is not usually commenced by the natives 
until the close of the last week's -sealing; or, in other words, those skins 
which they first took, three weeks ago, are now so pickled by the salt 
in which they have been lying ever since, as to render them eligible for 
this operation and immediate shipment. The moisture of the air dissolves 
and destroys a very large quantity of the saline preservative which the 
company brings up annually in the form of rock-salt, principally obtained 
at Carmen island, Lower California. 

Law protecting the seals. — The Alaska Commercial Company, 
by the provisions of law under which they enjoy their franchise, are Aimndieof skins. 

permitted to take 100,000 male seals annually, and no more, from the Pribylov islands. This they do in June and 
July of every year. After that season, the skins rapidly grow worthless, as the animals enter into shedding, and, 
if taken, would not pay for transportation and the tax. These natives are paid 40 cents a skin for the labor, and 
they keep a close account of the progress of the work every day ; they do so, as it is all done by them, and they 
know within 50 skins, one way or the other, when the whole number have been secured each season. This is the 
only occupation of the 308 people here, and they naturally look well after it. The interest and close attention paid 
by these natives, on both islands, to the "holluschickie" and this business, was both gratifying and instructive to 
me during my residence there. 

ERRONEOUS popular ideas. — The common or popular notion in regard to seal skins is, that they are worn 
by those animals just as they appear when offered for sale ; that the fur-seal swims about, exposing the same soft 

adjacent to the killing-grounds; it was the accumulation of such air-dried skins from the Pribylov islands, at Sitka, which rotted BO in 
1S03. that " T50.000 of them were cut up, or thrown out into the sea", completely destroyed. Had they been treated as they now are, such 
a calamity and hideous waste could not have occurred. 

The method of air-drying which the old settlers employed, is well portrayed by the practice of the natives now, who treat a few 
hundred sea-lion skins to the process every fall ; preparing them thus for shipment to Oonalashka, where they are used by brother Aleuts 
in covering their bidarkies or kyacks. 

The natives, in speaking to me of this matter, said that whenever the weather was rough and the wind blowing hard, these air-dried 
seal-skins, as they were tossed from the bidarrah to the ship's deck, numbers of them would frequently turn in the wind and fly clean 
over the vessel into the water beyond, when' they wire lust. 

Under the old order of affairs, prior to the present management, the skins were packed up and carried on the backs of the hoys and 
girls, women and old men, to the salt-houses, or drying-frames. When I first arrived, season of ls7'2, a slight variation was made in this 
respect, by breaking a small Siberian bull into harness and hitching it to a cart, in which the pelts were hauled. Before the cart was 
adjusted, however, and the " buik " taught to pull, it was led out to the killing-grounds, by a ring in its nose, and literally covered with 
the green seal-hides, which were thus packed to the kenches. The natives were delighted with even this partial assistance; but now they 
have no further concern about it at all. lor several mules and carts render prompt and ample service. They were introduced here, first, in 
1>7 I. The Russian- American Company and also the Alaska Commercial Company have brought up three or four horses to St. Paul, 
but they have been unfortunate in losing them all soon after lauding, the voyage and the climate combined being inimical to equine 
health : but the mules of the present order of affairs have been successful in their transportation to and residence on the Pribylov islands. 
One, the first of these horses just referred to, perhaps did not have a fair chance for its life. It was saddled one morning, and several 
camp-kettles, coffee-pots, etc., slung on the crupper for the use of the Russian agent, who was going up to Northeast point for a week or 
ten days' visit, He got into the saddle, and while m route, near l'olavina. a kettle or pot broke loose behind, the alarmed horse kicked its 
rider promptly off, and disappeared on a full run, in the fog, going toward the bogs of Kammiuista, where its lifeless and fox-gnawed 
body was found several days afterward. 

* The shallow depths of Bering sea give rise to a very bad surf, and though none of the natives can swim, as far as I could learn, yet 
they are quite creditable surfmen, and work the heavy "baidar" in and out from the landing adroitly and circumspectly. They put a 
sentinel upon the bluffs over Nab Speel, and go and come between the rollers as he signals. They are not graceful oarsmen under any 
circumstances, but can pull heartily and coolly together when in a piuch. The apparent ease and unconcern with which they bandied 
their bidarrah here in the "baroou" during the fall of 1869,80 emboldened three or four sailors of the United States Revenue Marine 
cutter ''Lincoln" that they lost their lives in that surf through sheer carelessness. The ''gig" in which they were coming ashore 
"broached to" in the breakers just outside of the cove, and their lifeless forms were soon after thrown up by the merciless waves ou the 
Lagoon rookery. Three graves of these men are plainly marked ou the slope of the Black Bluffs. 

There is a false air of listlessness and gentleness about an open sea, or roadstead roller, that is very apt to deceive even watermen of 
good understanding. The crushing, overwhelming power with which an ordinary breaker will hurl a large ship's boat on rocks awa-h, 
must be personally experienced ere it is half appreciated. 

'the bundled skins are carried from the salt-houses to the baidar. when the order for shipment is given, and pitched into that lighter 
one hy one, to be rapidly stowed: 7(1(1 to 1,200 bundles make the average single load; then, when alongside the steamer, they are agaiu 
tossed up, and od her deck, from whence they aie towed iu the buhl. 



78 TELE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

coat with -which our ladies of fashion so delight to cover their tender forms during inclement winter. This is a very 
great mistake ; few skins are less attractive than is the seal-skin when it is taken from the creature. The fur is not 
visible; it is concealed entirely by a coat of stiff overhair, dull, gray-brown, and grizzled. It takes three of them 
to make a lady's sacque and boa; and in order that the reason for their costliness may be apparent, I take great 
pleasure in submitting a description of the tedious and skillful labor necessary to their dressing ere they are lit for 
sale, which will be found in the appendix. 

Sketch of the Russio-China trade in fur-seal peltries. — During the whole of the extended period, 
from 1799 to 1SG7, inclusive, the Russians shipped and sold nearly all of the fur-seal skins that •were taken from the 
Pribylov islands, in that great international mart of Kiachta, on the Chinese frontier. Since the Americans have 
taken control, the sales have all been practically made in London. The Alaska Commercial Company sells every 
one of its skins from the Pribylov and Commander groups there, in the same wareroom where the Hudson Bay 
Company, when it had a thrifty existence and was a power, used to auction its furs annually. As millions of the 
air-dried pelts taken from the seal-islands of Alaska have been bartered in the China-Russian station, a brief 
description of Kiachta may be interesting. 

Prior to 1722, the Russians enjoyed a treaty with China which sanctioned the individual traveling of Muscovitic 
traders direct from the frontier to Pekin ; after a period of three and thirty years, the Russians were abruptly 
and entirely deprived of those coveted commercial privileges. After all intercourse between the two countries 
had ceased for five years, the Russians obtained a new treaty in 1728, by which, in order to prevent future 
misunderstandings, the international trade, as far at 'least as private individuals were concerned, should be 
conducted on the boundary line, exactly upon the same spot where this new treaty was negotiated. Here 
Kiachta was built, though she still had a rival in Pekin; for, by the provisions of the new treaty, government 
trading caravans were allowed to penetrate to the capital of the Chinese empire. But, in 17G2, Catharine the Second 
relinquished this imperial monopoly, and that action at once rendered this little town the grand and sole emporium 
of commerce between Russia and China. 

Description of Kiachta. — Kiachta, then, as now, stands on a rivulet of the same name, which, rising in 
in Siberia and crossing the frontier line, washes the foundations of Maimatschiu, a China town only a few miles 
away. Taken by itself, it is beset on all sides by rugged mountains; and the streamlet which forms a bond of 
union between these large empires of Asia is so tiny that, even by the aid of damming, it often fails to afford an 
adequate supply of water to the four or five thousand dwellers on its banks. These two small settlements, Kiachta 
and Maimatschin, are situated as nearly as possible on the fiftieth parallel of latitude, being about 1,000 miles from 
Pekin and 4,000 from Moscow. Though the Chinese route is much the shortest on the map, it is practically as 
hard a journey ; for at a distance of about a week's march from Pekin, the Chinese have a forty days' tramp, and 
upward, over a dismal desert of table-land. It is parched with heat during one-half of the year, and covered 
with snow during the other. The Russians, however, whether they come from the west with manufactured goods, 
or from the north and east with furs, enjoy the advantages of a peopled country and of navigable waters nearly all 
the way to Irkutsk, and when they have met at this, the common center of all the lines of communication, they 
may, and often do, prosecute the rest of their journey to the very neighborhood of Kiachta by crossing lake Baikal 
and ascending its principal tributary, the Selenga river. 

Character of the trade. — The Russian traders bring chiefly furs, woolens, cottons, and linens, while the 
Chinese bring teas principally, also silks, and sugar-candy ; thus the seal-skins of Alaska were wont to go first 
from the seal-islands to Sitka ; there they were assorted and put up into square bales, about 3 feet by 2, pressing 
the bundles in an old fashioned hand-lever press, and cording them while under this pressure; then envelopes of 
green walrus hide were sewed over them, and the packages, duly numbered, went to the Okotsk by ship, then to 
Kiachta by pack-horses, where the buyers of Pekin finally inspected and purchased them, giving in exchange the 
celebrated black teas of Maimatschin, the finest brands in all Mongolia, and produced only in the north of China, 
and which can be more cheaply transported from thence to Siberia than to Canton. 

Chinese disposition of fur-seal peltries. — The Chinese buyers seut their Pribylov peltries down to 
their home-markets on camels, and in carts drawn by oxen, to Kalgan, where the seal-skins were again sold to 
other dealers, who carried them to the ultimate retail trade. 

Volume of kiachta trade in 1837. — What the fur-trade of Kiachta to-day is, even though the rare skin of 
Callorhinus is seldom seen, I can find no data; but in 1837 the native land furs were represented by a value of 
7,400,188 roubles, and the peltries from Russian America, including the fur-seals, sea-otter, and all the Alaskan 
land catch, was 1,000,000 roubles. How many fur-seals were sold in this aggregate, I cannot ascertain, but the 
scanty yield during the two and three years preceding would not warrant any considerable showing. 

Chinese traders. — The Chinese at Kiachta were at first much more shrewd in their bargains than were 
their Russian neighbors; but the Slavonic instincts did not need much brushing up ere they were fully equal 
to all emergencies ; the methods of the Chinese in selecting seal-skins were elaborate and lengthy — each pelt was 
handled and measured, then a little metal tag attached on which the result was recorded. I find a great deal of 
confusion in the data at my command as to what the average price was in this market, because the Russians took 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 79 

all ages, and at all stages of the season, from June to December; consequently, the number of really prime skins 
was small compared with the whole aggregate sold ; the best pelts brought from "10 to 15 roubles "=88 to $12.50; 
the average sales were made, however, as low as from $4 to $5 per skin. Techmainov gives the most information 
touching the value of Russian American furs in those times, that I can find ; but, in regard to specific figures for the 
fur-seal quotations, he is only vague and general, the reason doubtless being that the whole volume of trade at 
Kiachta was and is exclusively one of barter, without the intervention of coin on either side. 

Season of Kiachta. commerce. — The business life of Kiachta is never fully aroused until winter has well set 
in, continuing until spring. There is no written regulation to this effect, but it has the force of law through habit. 
In disposing of their commodities, the Chinese have considerable local advantage, because their teas never remain 
a single season unsold at Maimatschin, while the Russian goods, partly through a diminution of the demand, and 
partly through the artifices of the Celestials, are often so depreciated in value as to have to wait two and three 
years for a market. 

Demand of Chinese for furs. — The Chinese have from time immemorial been solicitous purchasers of furs. 
The northern provinces of their dominions are not only subjected to an extremely rigorous winter climate, but are 
those where the most wealthy reside, because the best teas of the Celestial Empire grow there; hence the desire 
for fur robes and garments as measures of comfort during cold weather is universal among the inhabitants; they 
constitute an important part of the wardrobe of every important Chinaman throughout all "Kathay". A Russian 
authority, Paul von Krusensteru, says: "With the least change of air the Chinese immediately alter their dress; 
and even at Canton, which is within the confines of the tropics, they wear furs in the winter." 

First traffic in furs between America and China. — It is a curious fact, that until Captain John Gore 
anchored, December 18, 1779, near Canton with the ships of Cook's last vovage, from Kamtchatka and the 
northward, the furs which these English seamen then offered to the Chinese for sale were the first peltries ever 
brought into their markets by sea. The Chinese had hitherto gained everything of this character from without 
their precincts, by overland trade with Siberian merchants, or from the Burmese frontier via Bhamo. 

When Captain Gore, the surviving senior officer of Cook's last voyage, 177u-SO, returned to England, he found 
that war was existing with the United States, France, and Spain; the British government determined to withhold 
from the world all information of the voyage; hence it was not until the winter of 1784-85 that it was published. 
The statements contained in this work respecting the great abundance of animals yielding fine furs on the northwest 
coast, and the successful pecuniary bartering of the ships at Canton, stirred up a great many active men who fitted 
out vessels for the traffic. The first individual trader from the south on the northwest coast, was John Banna, 
an Englishman, who sailed from Canton, May, 1785, and tilled his little schooner with sea-otter skins at Nootka; 
then Portlock and Dixon, and Meares, in 1786 ; Gray and Kendrick, the first Americans, in 1787, head a long list of 
traders who came successively after them. In no record whatever of this pelagic fur trade can I find any mention 
made of the skin of the fur-seal, nor the slightest hint whatever until the period of the Fraser river gold excitement, 
in 18U2, when the first quotation of a fur- seal skin is made, taken at sea off the straits of Fuca. 

What the Russians knew of the business. — Perhaps the best, and an entirely correct, epitome of what 
the Russians at headquarters of the company in Sitka really knew 7 , biographically and commercially, of the fur-seal, 
is embodied in the following words of Governor Simpson, of the Hudson Bay Company, who, in 1841-42, was the 
guest of Governor Etholiue. lie had supreme control of Alaskan life and trade then, and gave to his English 
official peer, doubtless, all the knowledge which he possessed: 

Some twenty or thirty years ago there was a most wasteful destruction of the seal, -when young and old, male and female, were 
indiscriminately knocked on the head. This imprudence, as any one might have expected, proved detrimental in two ways. The race 
was almost extirpated; and the market was glutted to such a degree, at the rate for somo time of two hundred thousand skins a year, 
that the prices did not even pay the expenses of carriage. The Russians, however, have now adopted nearly the same plan which the 
Hudson Bay Company pursues, in recruiting any of its exhausted districts, killing only a limited number of such males as have attained 
their full growth, a plan peculiarly applicable to the fur-seal, inasmuch as its habits render the system of husbanding the stock as easy 
and certain as that of destroying it. 

In the month of May, with something like the regularity of an almanac, the fur-seals make their appearance at the island of St. Paul, 
one of the Aleutian group. Each old male brings a herd of females under his protection, varying in number according to his size and 
strength. The weaker brethren are obliged to content themselves with half a dozen wives, while some of the sturdier and fiercer fellows 
preside over harems that are two hundred strong. From the date of their arrival in May to that of their departure in October, the whole 
of them are principally ashore on the beach. The females go down to the sea once or twice a day, while the male, morning, noon, and 
Bight, watches his charge with the utmost jealousy, postponing even the pleasures of eating ami drinking and sleeping to the duty of 
keeping his favorites together. If any young gallant ventures by stealth among any senior chief's bevy of beauties, he generally atones 
for his imprudence with his life, being torn to pieces by the old fellow, and such of the fair ones as may have given the intrn ler any 
encouragement are pretty sure to catch it iu the shape of some secondary punishment. The ladies are in the straw about a fortnight after 
they arrive at St. Paul; about two or three weeks afterward they lay the single foundation, being all that is necessary, of next season's 
proceeding, anil the remainder of their sojourn they devote exclusively to the rearing of their young. At last the whole baud departs, no 
one knows whither. The mode of capture is this: at the proper time the whole are driven, like a Bock of sheep, to the establishment, 
Which is a mile distant from the sea. and there the males of four years, with the exception of the few that are left to keep Up the breed, 
are separated from the rest and killed. Iu the days of promiscuous massai re snch of the mothers as had lost their pups would over and 
anon return to the establishment, absolutely harrowing up the sympathies of the wives and the daughters of the hunters, accustomed as 
they wen- to such scenes, with their doleful lamentations. 



80 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The fur-seal attains the age of fifteen or twenty years, but not more. The females do not bring forth young till they are fivo years 
old. The hunters have frequently marked their ears each season, and many of the nuiinals have been notched in this way ten times, but 
very few of them oftener. 

Under the present system, the fur-seals are increasing rapidly in number. Previously to its introduction, the animal hunts had 
dwindled down to three and four thousand. They have now gradually got up to thrice that amount, and they are likely soon to equal the 
full demand, not exceeding thirty thousand skins, of the Russian government.* 

It is valuable, as showing that, as long ago as 1841-42, under Eussian management, more than 30,000 skins 
per annum would be a loss, and not profitable to take from the seal-islands. Also, that, though the tardy 
recognition of the fact that females should not be slaughtered was made on the Pribylov islands shortly prior to 
1841-42, yet suitable regulations had not yet been made for the management of the business, inasmuch as all 
classes, "as a whole," were driven to the killing-grounds. This harassed and disturbed the females quite as badly 
as if killed outright. In 1845 the present order of implicit non-trespass upon the breeding-rookeries was first 
established, and I am sorry that I cannot find the name of the intelligent Eussian who promulgated it, so that it 
might be known and respected, as it so well deserves. 

No pue-seals known to eakly trade. — The homely, yet explicit, letters of William Beresford should be 
noticed, for he sailed from London in 1797-98, as a trader with Portlock and Dixon, and he gives, perhaps, the 
only straightforward synopsis of the fur-trade of the northwest coast as it was then. He reviews the subject as it 
presents itself to him from Cook's inlet to Cape Mendocino, in the series of field-notes which are printed and form 
the body and soul of Dixon's Voyage. 

Nowhere does the author mention the fur-seal in this narrative, covering as it does two years' cruising between 
Kadiak and Cape Flattery. He evidently had not even heard of it, though at the time the Bussians were working 
the Pribylov islands barbarously, taking hundreds of thousands of skins. 

When I first went to the northwest coast, May, 1S85, I learned from the venerable Doctor Tolmie, a recently 
retired chief factor of the Vancouver (Hudson Bay Company's) district, a great deal of the fur-bearing animals of 
that country, as known to the celebrated company which he had represented. I find no mention in my memoranda 
made at the time, that he indicated the skin of the fur-seal as one of the long list of items of trade; and while I was 
in that country between the Stikeen mouth and Puget sound, 1805-'67, inclusive, I never heard a single word of the 
fur-seal, and I, myself, then never recognized its name. I do not think, therefore, it worth while to discuss the idle 
rumors, now prevalent to some extent, as to the "fact" that the fur-seal is breeding in some lonely nook here and 
there along the coast. The Indians would have known it full well a hundred years ago, and such anxious seekers 
after choice peltries as William Beresford and the Hudson Bay Company, would have profited accordingly. 

Pelagic pur-sealing a recent enterprise. — Fur-seals then, as now, were annually seen in all probability 
by the natives of the coast at sea, between Prince of Wales island and the Columbia river; but, either they were 
not deemed worthy of the labor in capture, or else the superior value of the sea-otter chase drew every attention 
of the pelagic hunters, just as it does to-day. At least I feel warranted in this conclusion, by the full and explicit 
details which Alexander Mackenzie gives of the furs that he saw in the natives' possession when he came overland 
from Montreal to the Pacific ocean in 1793. He describes the sea-otter almost exclusively. He speaks, however, 
of the natives having seal's flesh for sale; that it was eaten raw, "cut into chunks." Most likely this seal-meat of 
Mackenzie's notice was that of Phoca vitulina, which animal I have seen myself, nearly 100 miles up the Fraser 
river from the coast. However, it may have been that of the fur-seal, for he was among those savages who 
inhabited the islands and coast of Queen Charlotte sound, where these animals are to-day often seen sleeping or 
sporting in the broad reach of that open roadstead. 

14. ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE SKINS, OIL, AND FLESH OF THE FUE-SEAL. 

Eeason ■why fur-seal skins are all sold in London. — On account of the fact that the labor in this 
country, especially skilled labor, commands so much more per diem in the return of wages than it does in London 
or Belgium, it is not practicable for the Alaska Commercial Company, or any other company here, to attempt to dress 
and put upon the market the catch of Bering sea, which is in fact the entire catch of the whole world. Our people 
understand the theory of dressing these skins perfectly; but they cannot compete with the cheaper labor of the 
Old World. Therefore, nine-tenths nearly of the fur-seal skins taken every year are annually purchased and 
dressed in London, and from thence distributed all over the civilized world where furs are worn and prized. 

Cause op varying prices op dressed seal-skins. — The great variations of the value of seal-skin sacques, 
ranging from $75 up to $350, and even $500, is not often due to the variance in the quality of the fur originally; but 
it is due to the quality of the work whereby the fur was treated and prepared for wear. For instance, the cheap 
sacques are so defectively dyed that a little moisture causes them to soil the collars and cuffs of their owners, and 
a little exposure causes them speedily to fade and look ragged. A properly dyed skin, one that has been 
conscientiously and laboriously finished, for it is a labor requiring great patience and great skill, will not rub off or 

*Jn Overland Journey Round the World, 1841-1842, Sir George Simpson, Governor-in-C'hief Hudson Bay Company's territories; 
Philadlephia, 1847, pp. 130-131. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 81 

"crock" the whitest linen when moistened ; and it will wear the weather, as I have myself seen it on the form of a 
sea-captain's wife, for six and seven successive seasons, without showing the least bit of dimness or raggedneSS. 1 
speak of dyeing; alone ; 1 might say the earlier steps of unhairing in which the over-hair is deftly combed out aud oil" 
from the skin, heated to such a point that the roots of the fur are not loosened, while those to the coarser hirsute 
growth are. If this is not done with perfect uniformity, the fur will never lay smooth, no matter how skillfully 
dyed ; it will always ha^e a rumpled, ruffled look. Therefore, the hastily-dyed sacques are cheap ; and are 
enhanced in order of value just as the labor of dyeing is expended upon them. 

Gradation of the fue of Callorhinus tjrssinus. — The gradation of the fur of Callorhinus may, perhaps, 
be best presented in the following manner : 

1 YEAR OLD 6: well GROWtf: at July 1 of every season: 

FUR fully developed as to uniform length and thickness and evenness of distribution ; it is lighter in color, and softer in texture, 
than hereafter, during the life of the animal; average weight of skin as removed by the sealers from the carcass, 41 pounds. 

2 YEAR OLD 5 : well grown: «( June 1 of every season: 

FUR fully developed as to even length and thickness and uniformity of distribution ; it has now attained the darker buff and fawn 
color, sometimes almost brown, which it retains throughout the rest of the life of the animal ; it is slightly and perceptibly firmer ami 
stiller than it was last year, not being at all "fluffy" as iu the yearling dress now; average weight of skin, as taken from the body, 
!>£ pounds. 

3 YEAR OLD 5 : well GROWN: at June 1 of every season: 

FUE fully developed, as to even length, but a shade longer over the shoulders, where the incipient "wig" is forming; otherwise 
perfectly uniform iu thickness and even distribution ; this is the very best grade of pelt which the seal afi'ords during its life ; average 
weight of skin, as taken from the body, 7 pouuils. 

4 YEAR OLD <$ : well GROWN: at June 1 of every season: 

FUR fully developed as to even length, except a decided advance in length and perceptible stiffness over the shoulders, in the "wig"; 
otherwise perfectly uniform iu thickness and even distribution ; this grade is almost as safe to take, and as good as is the three-year- 
old; average weight of skin, as removed, 12 pounds. 

5 YEAR OLD <$ : well grown: at May to June i of every season: 

FUR fully developed, but much Longer and decidedly coarser in the "wig" region; otherwise, uniform in thickness and distribution; 
the coarseness of the fur over the shoulders and disproportionate length thereon destroys that uniformity necessary for rating A 1 in 
the market; in fact it does not pay to take this skin; average weight, 16 pounds. 

6 YEAR "OLD 5 : well grown: from May to June 1 of every season: 

FUR fully developed, still longer and stiller in the '-wig" region, with a slightly thinner distribution over the post-dorsal region, 
and shorter; this skin is never taken — it is profitless; average weight, 25 pounds. 

7 YEAR OLD AND UPWARD 6 : from May to June 1 of every season: 

FUR fully developed, but very unevenly distributed, being relatively scant and short over the posterior dorsal region, while it is 
twice as long and very coarse iu the covering to the shoulders especially and the neck and chest. Skins are valueless to the fur trade ; 
weights, 45 to CO pounds. 

The analysis, as above, is a brief epitome^ of the entire subject; only, it should be added that the female skins 
are as finely furred as are the best grades of the males; and also, that age does not cause the quality of their 
pelage to deteriorate, which it does to so marked an extent in the males. But, taking them into consideration is 
entirely out of the question, and ought to be so forever. 

The Icetal coat of the pup is composed of coarse black hair alone, the underwool not at all developed, when 
this is shed and the new coat put on in September and October, it is furred and haired as a yearling, which I 
diagnose above; this pelage has, however, no commercial value. 

All the skins taken by the company for the last eight years have been prime skins, in the fair sense of the 
term ; but, all the seal-skin sacques made therefrom have not been of the first quality, by any means. 

In order that the rules and regulations and the law governing and protecting the interests of the government 
on these islands may be fully understood, I embody them in the appendix. 

Oil of the fur-seal.— I have spoken of the blubber, and as I mentioned it, doubtless the thought will 
occur, what becomes of the oil contained therein ; is it all allowed to waste ? A most natural query, and one that 
I made instantly after my first arrival on the islands. I remember seeing 40 or 50 hogsheads and tierces headed up 
and standing near the foot of the village hill, in which were many thousands of gallons of fur-seal oil. I asked the 
agent of the company when he was going to ship it; he shrugged his shoulders aud said: "As soon as it will pay." 

I made, during the season, careful notes as to the amount of oil represented by the blubber exposed on the 
100,000 young male seal carcasses, and I found that the two and three year old "holluschickie" bodies as left by the 
skinner would not clean up on an average more than a half a gallon of oil ; while the four-year-old males would 
make nearly a gallon. It should be remembered that quite a large portion of the seaFs fat is taken off with the 
skin, as its presence thereon is necessary to that proper amalgamation and preservation by the salt when it is applied 
to its fresh surface iu the " keuches"; hence the amount of oil represented by these carcasses every year is not much 
over 60,000 gallons. 

Condition, of the fur-seal oll market. — When among the seal-oil dealers in !New York city, during the 
month of May, in 1876, I took these notes with me and investigated the standing and the demand for fur seal 
oil iu their market and the markets of the world ; and the statements of these oil experts and dealers were all 
in accord as to the striking inferiority of fur-seal oil, compared with the hair seal and sea-elephant oil, which 
they dealt in largely. The inferiority of the fur-seal oil is due primarily to the offensive odor of the blubber, which 



82 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

I have spoken of heretofore. This singularly disagreeable smell does not exist in the blubber of the hair-seal 
(Pliocid(v), the sea elephant or sea-lion, and it makes the process of refining very difficult. They said it was almost 
impossible to properly deodorize it and leave the slightest margin of profit for the manufacturer and the dealer. 
It was gummy and far darker in color than any other seal-oil, hence it possessed little or no commercial value. 
Then, again, when the subject of taking oil from the seal-islands of Alaska is considered, the following obstacles, 
in addition to the first great objection just cited, arise at once to financial success : the time, trouble, and danger 
in loading a vessel with oil at the islands where, on account of the absence of a harbor and the frequent succession 
of violent gales, a ship is compelled to anchor from a mile and a half to three miles from the coast, on which the 
suit is always breaking. The cost, agaiu, of casks and cooperage will amount to 10 cents per gallon ; the cost of 
the natives' work in securing and bringing the blubber to the try- works, 10 cents per gallon; the cost of refining 
it, 10 cents; and the cost of transportation of a cargo of, say, 00,000 gallons will amount to nearly 20 cents per 
gallon; thus making a gallon of fur-seal oil aggregate in cost to the taker 50 cents, which entails upon him 
nothing but pecuniary loss when the cargo goes upon the market, and where it is worth only from 40 to 50 cents 
retail, with a dull sale at that.* 

Fragile character of fur-seal bones. — I looked at the fur-seal bones, and at first sight it seemed as 
though a bone-factory might be established there; but a little examination of the singularly light and porous osseous 
structure of the CallorMnus quickly stifled that enterprise. The skull and larger bones of the skeleton are more like 
pasteboard than the bone which is so common to our minds. When dried out, the entire skeleton of a three-year-old 
male will not weigh seven pounds; indeed, I am inclined to think it would be much less than that if thoroughly 
kiln-dried, as alter the fashion of the bone-mills. Therefore, although 100,000 of these skeletons bleach out and 
are trodden down annually, upon the Pribylov islands, yet they have not the standing for any commercial valne 
whatsoever, considering their distance and difficulty of access from those impoverished fields where they might 
serve our farmers as fertilizing elements. t 

Decay of seal carcasses. — Another singular and striking characteristic of the island of St. Paul, is the 
fact that this immense slaughtering-field, upon- which 75,000 to 90,000 fresh carcasses lie every season, sloughing 
away into the sand beneath, does not cause any sickness among the people who live right over them, so to speak. 
The cool, raw temperature, and strong winds, peculiar to the place, seem to prevent any unhealthy effect from the 
fermentation of decay. The Mymus and other grasses once more take heart and grow with magical vigor over 
the unsightly spot, to which the sealing-gang agaiu return, repeating their bateau, w'hich we have marked before, 
upon this place, three years ago. In that way this strip of ground, seeu on my map betweeu the village, rhe 
east landing, and the lagoon, contains the bones and the oil-drippings and other fragments thereof, of more than 
3,000,000 seals slain since 1786 thereon, while the slaughter-fields at Hbvastoshnah record the end of a milliou more. 

I remember well the unmitigated sensations of disgust that possessed me when 1 first lauded, April 28, 187:', on 
the Pribylov islands, and passed up from the'beach, at Lukannon, to the village, over the killing-grounds; though 
there was a heavy coat of snow on the fields, yet each and every cue of 75,000 decaying carcasses was there, and 
bare, having burned, as it were, their way out to the open air, polluting the same to a sad degree. I was laughed at 
by the residents who noticed my facial contortions, and assured that this state of smell was nothing to what I should 
soon experience when the frost and snow had fairly melted. They w T ere correct ; the odcr along by the end of May 
was terrific punishment to my olfactories, and continued so for several weeks until my sense of smell became blunted 

"In 1873, not having had any experience and not even knowing the views of the oil dealers themselves, I left the seal-islands 
believing that if the special tax which was then laid upon each gallon of oil as it might he rendered was removed, that it would pay the 
manufacturer, and in this way employ the natives, many days of the year otherwise idle, profitably. The company assured me that as far 
as its conduct in the matter was concerned, it would be perfectly willing to employ the natives in rendering fur-seal oil, and give them all 
the profit, not desiring itself to coin a single penny out of the whole transaction; possibly this could be done if the special tax of 55 cents 
per gallon was stricken off. The matter was then urged upon the Treasury Department, by myself, in October, 1873, and Ihe tax was 
repealed by the department soon after. But it seems that I was entirely mistaken as to the quality and value of the oil itself. I made, 
to satisfy myself, a very careful investigation of the subject in 1876, going personally to the leading dealers in whale and seal oil of New 
York city, aud they were unanimous in their opposition to handling fur-seal oil, some of them saying that they would not touch it at any 
price. I felt considerably chagrined, because had I known as much in 1873, I would have saved myself then, and my friends subsequently, 
a good deal of unnecessary trouble and profitless action. 

tThe bones of Callorkinvs, though apparently strong, are surprisingly light and porous; indeed, they resemble those of Area more than 
those commonly credited to mammalia; the osseous strncture, however, of I'lioca vilulimi, the hair-seal which I examined there, side by side 
with that of tin; fur-seal, was very much more solid and weighed, bone for bone of equal age, just about one-third more, the skull especially; 
also the shoulder-blades aud the pelvic series. If the bones of the animals were not. divested of their cartilaginous continuations and 
connections, then the aggregate weight of tho fur-seal is equal to its hairy-skinned relative; the entire skeleton of a three-year-old $ 
CallorMnus, completely divested by sea-lleas (Aiwpkipoda) of all flesh and fat, but with every ligameutary union aud articulation perfect 
(the cartilaginous toe-ends all present), was just 8 pounds, and I have reason to believe that when it became air-dried and bleached it did 
not weigh more than 4 or 5. The bones of the older seals are relatively very much heavier, but only relatively; the frailness and fragility 
is constant through life, though the skulls of the old males do thicken up on their crests and about tho rami of their jaws very perceptibly. 

Sea-lion bones are, however, normally strong and heavy; the bone of the fur-seal is evidently stout enough, but it is singularly light, 
while tho walrus, that dull, sluggish brute, has a massive osteologieal frame. I made these relative examinations more especially to 
ascertain something which might pass for a correct estimate of what the bony waste on the killing-grounds of the Pribylov islands 
amounted to annually, with a view of its possible utilization. The spongy bones of the whole 100,000 annually laid out would not render, 
according to my best judgment, 50 tons of dry bone-meal— an insignificant result and unworthy of further notice on these islands. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 83 

and callous to this stench by long familiarity. Like the other old residents I then became quite unconscious of the 
prevalence of this rich "funk ", and ceased to notice it. 

Those who land here, as I did, for the first time, nervously and invariably declare that such an atmosphere must 
breed a plague or a fever of some kind in the village, and hardly credit the assurance of those who have resided 
in it for the whole period of their lives, that such a thing was never known to St. Paul, and that the island is 
remarkably healthy. It is entirely true, however, and, after a few weeks' contact, or a couple of months' experience, 
at the longest, the most sensitive nose becomes used to that aroma, wafted as it is hourly, day in and out, from 
decaying seal-flesh, viscera, and blubber; and, also, it ceases to be an object of attention. The cool, sunless climate 
during the warmer mouths has undoubtedly much to do with checking too rapid decomposition, and consequent 
trouble therefrom, which would otherwise arise from the killing-grounds. 

The freshly-skinned carcasses of this season do not seem to rot substantially until the following year ; then 
they rapidly slough away into the sand upon which they rest; the envelope of blubber left upon each body seems 
to act as an air-tight receiver, holding most of the putrid gases that evolved from the decaying viscera until their 
volatile tension causes it to give way; fortunately the line of least resistance to that merciful retort is usually 
right where it is adjacent to the soil, so both putrescent fluids and much of the stench within is deodorized and 
absorbed before it can contaminate the atmosphere to any great extent. The truth of my observation will be 
promptly verified, if the skeptic chooses to tear open any one of the thousands of gas-distended carcasses in the fall, 
that were skinned in the killing-season ; if he does so, he will be smitten by the worst smell that human sense ran 
measure; and should he chance to be accompanied by a native, that callous individual, even, will pinch his grimy 
nose and exclaim, it is a "keeshla pabknoot"! 

At the close of the third season after the skinning of the seal's body, it will have so rotted and sloughed down, 
as to be marked only by the bones and a few of the teudiuous ligaments; in other words, it requires from thirty to 
thirty-six months' time for a seal carcass to rot entirely away, so nothing but whitened bones remain above grouud. 
The natives govern their driving of the seals and laying out of the fresh bodies according to this fact; for they can, 
and do, spread this year a whole seasou's killing out o\er the same spot of the field previously covered with such 
fresh carcasses three summer's ago; by alternating with the seasons thus, the natives are enabled to annually 
slaughter all of the "holluschickie" ou a relatively small area, close by the salt-houses, and the village, as I have 
indicated ou the map of St. Paul. 

Description of killing-ground op St. Paul. — The killing-ground of St. Paul is a bottomless sand flat, 
only a few feet above high water, and which unites the village hill and the reef with the island itself; it is not 
a stone's throw from the heart of the settlement — in fact, it is right in town — not even suburban. 

Description of the killing ground at St. George. — On St. George the "holluschickie" are regularly 
driven to that northeast slope of the village hill which drops down gently to the sea, where they are slaughtered, 
close by and under the houses, as at St. Paul ; those droves which are brought in from the North Rookery to the 
west, and also Starry Ateel, are frequently driven right through the village itself. This slaughtering field of St, 
George is hard tufa and rocky, but it slopes down to the ocean rapidly enough to drain itself well ; hence the 
constant rain and humid fogs of summer carry off that which would soon clog and deprive the natives from using 
the grouud year after year in rotation, as they do. Several seasons have occurred, however, when this natural 
cleansing of the ground above-mentioned has not been as thorough as must be to be used again immediately; then 
the seals were skinned back of the village hill, aud iu the ravine to the west on the same slope from the summit. 

This village site of St. George to-day, and the killing-grounds adjoining, used to be, during early Russian 
occupation, in Pribylov's time, a large sea-lion rookery, the finest one known to either island, St. Paul or St. George. 
Natives are living there who told me that their fathers had been employed iu shooting and driving these sea- 
lions so as to deliberately break up the breeding-ground, and thus rid the island of what they considered a 
superabundant supply of the Eumetoplas, and thereby to aid and encourage the fresh and increased accession of 
fur-seals from the vast majority peculiar to St. Paul, which could not take place while the sea-lions held the land.* 

"The St. Paul village site is located wholly on the northern slope of the village hill, where it drops from its greatest elevation, at the 
flagstaff, of 125 feet gently down to the sandy killing-flats below and between it and the main body of the island. The houses are all 
placed facing the north, at regular intervals along the terraced streets, which run S. E. and X. W. There are 74 or BO native houses, 10 
large and smaller buildings of the company, the treasury agent's residence ; the church, the cemetery crosses, aud the school building are 
all staudiug here iu coats of pure white paint. The survey of the town site, when rebuilt, was made by Mr. II. W. McTntyro, of the 
Alaska Commercial Company, who, himself, planned and devised the entire reconstruction. No offal or decaying refuse of any kind is 
allowed to stand around the dwellings or lie in the streets. It required much determined effort on the part of the whites to effect this 
sanitary reform, but now most of the natives take equal pride in keeping their surrouudings clean and unpolluted. 

The site of the St. George settlement is more exposed aud bleak than is the one we have just referred to on St. Paul. It is 
planted directly on the rounded summit of one of the first low hills that rise from the sea on the north shore; imleeil, it is the only hill 
that does slope directly and geutly to the salt water on the island. Here are 24 to 30 native cottages, laid with their doors facing the 
opposite sides of a short street between, running also east and west, as at St. Paul. There, however, each house looks down upon 
the rear of its neighbor, in front and below. Here the houses face each other, on the top of the hill. The treasury agent's quarters, the 
company's six or seven buildings, the school-house, and the church are all neatly painted, and this settlement, from its prominent 
position, shows from the sea to a much better advantage than does the larger one of St. Paul. The same municipal sanitary regulations 
are enforced here. Those who may visit the St. George and St. Paul of to-day will find the streets dry and hard as floors. Thc.\ have 
been covered with a thick layer of volcanic cinders ou both islands. 



84 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

F. THE SEA-LION (EUMETOPIAS STELLEBI). 

15. LIFE-HISTORY OF THE SEA-LION. 

Natural inferiority to the fur-seal. — This .animal, also a characteristic pinniped of the Fribylov 
islands, ranks much below the fur-seal in perfected physical organization and intelligence. It can, as well as its 
more sagacious and valuable relative, the CallorMnus, be seen, perhaps, lo better advantage on these islands than 
elsewhere in the whole world that I know of. The marked difference between the sea-lion and the fur-seal up here, 
is striking ; the former being twice the size of its cousin. 

The size and strength of the northern sea-lion, Eumetopias Stelleri, its perfect adaptation to its physical 
surroundings, unites with a singular climatic elasticity of organization; it seems to be equally as well satisiied with 
the ice-floes of the Kamtchatka sea to the northward, or the polished bowlders and the hot sands of the coast 
of California.* It is an animal, as it appears upon its accustomed breeding-grounds at Northeast point, where I 
saw it, that commanded my admiration by its imposing presence and sonorous voice, rearing itself before me with 
head, neck, and chest upon its powerful fore-arms, over six feet in height; while its heavy bass voice drowned the 
booming of the surf that thundered on the rocks at its flanks. 

The physical presence of the sea-lion. — The size and strength of the adult sea-lion male will be better 
appreciated, when I say that it has an average length of ten and eleven feet, osteologically, with an enormous girth 
of eight to nine feet around the chest and shoulders; but, while the anterior parts of the frame are as perfect and 
powerful on land as in sea, those posterior are ridiculously impotent when the huge beast leaves its favorite element. 
Still, when hauled up beyond the reach of the brawling surf, as it rears itself, shaking the spray from its tawny 
chest and short grizzly mane, it has that leonine appearance and bearing, greatly enhanced, as the season advances, 
by the rich golden rufous-color of its coat, the savage gleam of its expression, due probably to the sinister muzzle 
and cast of its eye. This optical organ is not round and full, soft and limpid, like the fur-seal's, but it is an eye like 
that of a bull-dog, small, and clearly showing, under its heavy lids, the white or sclerotic coat, with a light brown 
iris. Its teeth gleam and glisten in pearly whiteness against the dark tongue and the shadowy recesses of its wide, 
deep mouth; the long, sharp, broad-based canines, when bared by the wrathful snarling of its gristled lips, glittered 
more wickedly, to my eye, than the keenest sword ever did in the hand of man.t 

With these teeth alone, backed by the enormous muscular power of a mighty ueck and broad shoulders, the 
sea-lion confines its battles to its kind, spurred by terrible energy and heedless and persistent brute courage. No 
animals that I have ever seen in combat presented a more savage or more cruelly fascinating sight than did a brace 
of old sea-lion bulls which met under my eyes near the Garden cove at St. George. 

Sea-lions fighting at Tolstoi. — Here was a sea-lion rookery, the outskirts of which I had trodden upon 
for the first time. These old males, surrounded by their meek, polygamous families, were impelled toward each 
other by those latent fires of hate and jealousy, which seemed to burst forth and fairly consume the angry rivals. 
Opening with a long, round, vocal prelude, they gradually came together, as the fur-seal bulls do, with averted 
heads, as though the sight of each other was sickening — but fight they must. One would play against the other 
for an unguarded moment in which to assume the initiative, until it had struck its fangs into the thick skin of its 
opponents jowl; then, clenching its jaws, was not shaken off until the struggles of its tortured victim literally 

*The sea-lion certainly seems to have a more elastic constitution than is possessed by the fur-seal; in other words, the former can live 
under greater natural extremes of climate than can the latter. A careful test of this question was made by the late R. B. Woodward, in 
the aquaria of his famous gardens at San Francisco. He told me at the Grand Hotel, in 1873, that he should not attempt to keep another 
fur-seal alive in his tanks; that every one of the half dozen live specimens which he had placed therein at different intervals during the 
last three years had died — began to droop and waste away as soon as they were installed in their new quarters; but he seldom lost a 
sea-lion, except from clear or natural reasons. Mr. Woodward, from his practical experience, was positive in his belief (hat no living 
adult fur-seal could ever be exhibited in New York; while be thought that the sea-lion, both Zalophus and Eumetopias, could be carried alive, 
and in good condition, all over this country from New Orleans to Montreal, or San Francisco to Bangor. He said, " Our black sea-lion 
{Zalophus) is tougher than the larger kind (Eumetopias), and is just the creature for showmen." 

t The teeth of the fur-seal are uot, as a rule, clean aud white, as they are in the mouths of most carnivora ; they are badly discolored 
by black, brown, and yellowish coatings, especially so with regard to the males; the pup's milk teeth are complete exponents of the dental 
formula of adolescence, but are small, brittle, mostly black and brown in color; with their shedding, however, the permanent teeth come 
out quite clear, aud glistening white ; still, again, in a year or two they rapidly lose their purity of tint, being discolored as above stated. 
The sea-lion imps, also, arc born with dingy, dusky milk teeth, but I found that when their permanent set was grown it usually retained, 
even into old age, its primitive whiteness. This difference between theso animals is quite marked, which, together with the opposite 
characters of their blubber, mentioned hereafter, constitute a very curious basis of differentiation. 

The fur-seal pup, when it spits or coughs in fright, opens its mouth wide, and the small black and brown teeth seem sadly out of 
place, set in the bright, rosy gums around the fresh pink tinge of the tongue and under the red, flushed palate. 

The canines and incisors of Callorhinus and Eumetopias arc well rooted, but the molars are not; their alveoli are only partly filled, so 
that when the lleshy gums are removed these teeth will easily rattle out of their sockets. 

In looking over hundreds and thousands of the skulls of Callorhinus as they bleach out on the killing-grounds, I was struck by their 
astonishing lack of symmetry ; they varied fully as much in their extremes as the skulls of many different genera do. The number of 
teeth differ also : some jaws have sets of but live molars, others six, and others seven. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 85 

tore them out, leaving an ugly, gaping wound — for the sharp eye-teeth cut a deeper gutter in the skin and flesh 
than would have held my hand; tired into almost supernatural rage, the injured lion retaliated, quick as a Hash, in 
kind; the hair Hew from both of them into the air, the blood streamed down in frothy torrents, while high above 
the boom of the breaking waves and shrill deafening screams of water-fowl over head, rose the ferocious, hoarse, 
and desperate roar of the combatants. 

Land travel of the sea-lion.— Though provided with flippers, to all external view, as the fur-seal is, the 
sea-lion cannot, however, make use of them at all in the same free manner. The fur-seal may be driven five or six 
miles in twenty-four hours, under the most favorable conditions of cool, moist weather; the "seevitchic", however, 
can only go two miles, the conditions of weather and roadway being the same. The sea-lion balances and swings 
its long and heavy ueck, as a lever, to and fro, with every hitching up behind of its posterior limbs, which it seldom 
raises from the ground, drawing them up after the fore-feet with a slide over the grass or sand, and rocks, as the 
case may be ; ever and anon pausing to take a sullen and savage survey of the field and the natives, who are driving 
them. 

The sea-lion is polygamous, but it does not maintain any regular system and method in preparing for and 
attending to its harem, like that so finely illustrated on the breeding-grounds of the fur-seal; and it is not so 
numerous, comparatively speaking. There are not, according to my best judgment, over ten or twelve thousand 
of these animals altogether on the breeding-grounds of the Pribylov islands ; it does not haid more than a few rods 
anywhere, or under any circumstances, back from the sea. It cannot be visited and inspected by men as the fur- 
seals are, for it is so shy and suspicious that, on the slightest warning of an approach, a stampede into the water is 
a certain result.* 

Peculiar cowardice of the sea-lion. — That noteworthy, intelligent courage of the fur-seal, though it docs 
not possess half the size nor one-quarter of the muscular strength of the sea-lion, is entirely wanting in the huge 
bulk and brain of the Ehi/mefopias. A boy, with a rattle or a pop-gun, could stampede ten thousand sea-lion bulls, 
in the height of the breeding-season, to the water; and keep them there tor the rest of the season.t 

First arrivals. — The males come out and locate over the narrow belts of the rookery-grounds (sometimes as 
at St. Paul on the immediate sea-margin of the fur-seal breeding places), two or three weeks in advance of the 
females, which arrive later, i. e., between the 1st to the Oth of June; and these females are never subjected to 
that intense, jealous supervision so characteristic of the fur-seal harem. The sea-lion bulls, however, fight savagely 
among themselves, and turn off from the breeding-ground all the younger and weaker males. 

Tiie female sea-lion. — The cow sea-lion is not quite half the size of the adult male; she will measure from 
eight to niue feet in length osteologically, with a weight of four or five hundred pounds ; she has the same general 
cast of countenance and build of the bull; but, as she does not sustain any fasting period of over a week or ten 
days consecutively, she never comes out so grossly fat as the male. With reference to the weight of the latter, I 
was particularly unfortunate in not being able to get one of those big bulls to the scales before it had been bled; 
and in bleeding I know that a flood of blood poured out which should have been recorded iu the weight. There- 
fore, I can only estimate this aggregate avoirdupois of one of the finest-conditioned adult male sea-lions at 1,400 
to 1,500 pounds; an average weight, however, might safely be recorded as touching 1,200 pouuds.t 

"That the sea-lion bull should be so cowardly in the presence of man, yet so ferocious and brave toward one another and other 
amphibious animals, struck me as a line of singular contrast with the undaunted bearing of the fur seal "seacatch ", which, though being 
not half Ibe size, or possessing muscular power to anything like its development in the "seevitcbie", nevertheless, will unflinchingly face, 
on its station at the rookery, any man, to the death. The sea-lion bulls, certainly, fight as savagely ami as desperately, one with another. 
as the fur seal males do. There is no question about that ; and their superior strength and size only makes the result more effective in 
the exhibition of gaping wounds anil attendant bloodshed. I have repeatedly seen examples of these old warriors of the sea which were 
literally scarred, from their muzzles to their posteriors, so badly and so uniformly as to have fairly lost all the color, or geueral appearance 
even, of hair anywhere ou their bodies. 

I recall, in this connection, the sight of an aged male sea-lion, which had evidently been defeated by a younger and more lusty rival, 
perhaps ; it was hauled upon a lava shelf at Southwest point, solitary and alone ; the rock around it being literally covered with pools 
Of pus, which was oozing out and trickling down from a score of festering wounds; the victim stood planted squarely on its torn fore- 
flippers, with bead erect and thrown back upon its shoulders ; its eyes were closed, and it gently swayed its sore neck and shoulders in a 
sort of troubled, painful day-dreaming or dozing. Like the fur-seal, the sea-lion never notices its wounds to nurse ami lick them, as dogs 
do, "r other carnivora ; it never pays the slightest attention to them, no matter bow grievously it may be injured. 

t This marked cowardice of tin' sea-lion was well noted by Steller, who speaks of it thus : " Though the males have a terrible aspect, 
yet they take flight on the tirst appearance of man ; and if surprised in their Bleep, they are panic struck, sighing deeply, and in their 
attempt to escape get quite confused, tumble down, and tremble so much that they are scarcely able to move their limbs. If. however, 
reduced to extremity. 1 hey grow desperate, turn on their enemy with great 1'ury and uoise, and put even the most valiant to flight." — 
Nov. Com. Acad. .So'. Peiropol., tome ii, 1749. 

{Often, when the fur-seal and sea-lion bulls haul up in the beginning of the season, examples among them which are inordinately 
fat will be seen : their extra avoirdupois renders them very conspicuous, even among large gatherings of their kind: they seem to exhibit 
a sense of sell-oppression then, quite as marked as is that subsequent air of depression worn when, late]-, they have starved Out this load 
of surplus blubber, and are shambling back to the sea. for recuperation and rest. 

I thought over and devised many plans to kill and weigh entire one of these unusually heavy bulls ; but, they all failed, because I did 
not have the time to spare from so many other observations pressing and necessary to be made at that season, if made- at all during the year. 
The united effort of five or six men, aided by the mule and cart at St. Paul, would solve the problem, doubil, ss, almost any day they set about 



86 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Organization or sea-lion rookeries. — The sea-lion rookery will be found to consist of about ten to 
fifteen females to every male. The females, in landing, seem to be influenced by no preference for one male above 
another, but are actuated solely to come ashore at a suitable place, where, soon after landing, they are to bring 
forth their young. The cow seems at all times to have the utmost freedom in moving from place to place ; and also 
often to start with its young — which is noteworthy, inasmuch as I never saw it among the fur-seals — picking the pup 
up by the nape and carrying it to the water to play with it for short spells in the surf wash. The pup sea-lions are 
by no means helpless when they are born; when they first come into the world their eyes are promptly opened wide 
and clear; they stand up quite free and strong on their odd flipper feet, and commence at once, in their frequent 
intervals of wakefulness, to crawl over bowlders and the sand, to paddle iu the surf, and to roar huskily and shrilly 
at their parents. 

Growth op young sea-lions. — They are fed upon the richest of rich milk, at irregular and somewhat 
lengthy periods; regaled in this manner, the young sea-lion grows with surprising rapidity, so much so that its 
weight, of 9 or 12 pounds at birth, is increased to 75 or 90, in less than four months thereafter. By this time, also, it 
has shed its natal coat and teeth ; it has grown a strong mustache, and has become a facile swimmer and expert 
fisherman, though at first it was one of the most clumsy, yet never so helpless as the fur-seal. The liquid, pearly- 
blue eye of the little fellow is soon changed into the sinister expression of adolescence, when it has rounded its 
second year. It appears to grow up unnoticed by its grim-looking parents, though the maternal attention is more 
evident, but still scant, indeed, when contrasted with the love evinced by cat or dog for its offspring. 

Visiting the Tolstoi rookery. — At the east end of St. George island, just to the southward of Tolstoi 
Mees, is one of the finest sea-lion rookeries on the islands, or, perhaps, in the world. It lies at the base of a frowning 
wall of precipitous cliffs, the mural walls sheer aloft 400 and 500 feet as they overhang the sea. Here beneath, on 
a rocky stretch of beach some 30 or 40 feet wide, at high-water mark, stowed thickly side by side, end to end, and 
crosswise for a distance of half a mile up and down the coast, are four or five thousand sea-lions of all sizes and 
both sexes; and here they will be found every summer, secure from the approach of enemies by land. Inasmuch 
as they rest there under the cliffs, they cannot be practically approached and driven, as their kind are by the Aleuts, 
from their more accessible breeding-haunts at Northeast point, St. Faul island.* 

By paying attention to the direction of the wind, the observer can descend at intervals from the heights above, 
unheeded and unsuspected by them, to within a stone's throw of their tawny forms; where you may notice their 
thousand and one unconstrained and peculiar maneuvers, which would be interrupted at once by a tumultuous and 
universal rush for the water should you make yourself known. You will be impressed, first, by their excessive 
restlessness; they are ever twisting and turning, coiling and uncoiling themselves over the rocks; now stretched out 
prone in slumber, the next minute up and moving. The roar of one is instantly caught up by another, so that the 
aggregate sound, as it rises and falls from this rookery, reverberating along the bluffs at irregular though close 
intervals, can only be compared, in my mind, to the hoarse sound of a tempest as it howls through the rigging of a 
ship, or sighs through the branches of a forest growth. 

The voice of the northern sea-lion, Eumetopias, is confined to either a deep, resonant roar, or a low, muttering 
growl ; not only to the males alone is this monotone peculiar, but also to the females and the young. It does not have 
that striking flexibility of the Callorhinus, and in this respect their vocal organization is very marked and different 
from that of the fur-seal. I might say, further, that the pups are exceedingly playful, but, unlike the noisy 
" kotickie ", they are almost silent ; when they utter a sound it is a short, sharp, querulous growling. 

it, early in May. Some of these super-fleshy fur-seal males look as though they were from 600 to 700 pounds weight, while I have seen 
several sea-lion hulls that actually appeared equal to turning the scales at 1,500 pounds avoirdupois. Those fur-seals which I did weigh in 
July, 1873, and September, 1872, were not at all extra fleshy, and consequently do not give a fair return for these examples above referred to. 

* It will be uoticed that I have made no especial spacing or reservation on my maps for the sea-lions at Northeast point, on St. 
Paul island, but have included them solidly within the lines of the breeding fur-sealB. The reason why I omit these lines of exact 
limitation is due to the fact that they laid iu, along the water's edge at intervals, so closely with the fur-seals, and in such apparent 
good fellowship, that I could not observe any sharp demarkation between them; except only the irregular, confused patches of their 
bright golden coats in contrast, with the dull rusty dress of Callorhinus. The Eumetopias, here, where it was breeding, never lay far back 
from the surf, but always close to its high-water washings; in this method, I should judge, about 12,000 to l. r ),000 of them occupy 
little strips of Novastoshnah and Seevitchie Kammin ; being the only rookery spots on the Pribylov islands where they breed in close 
juxtaposition with the fur-seals. Then, there is a sea-lion rookery on St. George, all to itself, under the high mural walls just north of 
the Garden covo sand beech, where I estimate another 4,000 to 5,000 of these animals annually haul out and breed. Very likely my 
allowance of 12,000 to 15,000 sea-lions on St. Paul is too large, and 10,000 is a better figure of their numerical expression. My published 
estimates of 25,000 on the two islands, in 1874, I feel now are larger than the facts allow. 

As might be inferred, the sea-lions at Novastoshnah do not allow the fur-seals to disturb them, nor do they in turn ever appear to 
annoy or drive their physically weaker brethren ; they seem to wear an air of perfect unconcern for each other; although the fur-seal 
bulls, I observed, were never caught lounging over the narrow littoral margins of the sea-lions' breeding-grounds ; but meekly bowed their 
heads and scuttled across, wholly beneath the notice of the huge "seevitchie". 

Why the sea-lion should be relatively so scant in numbers over the great extent of the large geographical area wherein it is found, 
is perplexing to me, for, it is physically as active and much more powerful than the fur-seal; perhaps, this increased bulk of body deters 
it irom feeding as successfully as its more lithesome cousin does. I should estimate that the full-grown sea-lion bull, after it leaves the 
islands at the end of the breeding-season, until it reappears for the next, would require at least 100 pounds offish per diem, while the 
females and younger males would crave and consume from 40 to 60 pounds of such food every twenty-four hours. 




•1-5 .9 



8 

1 I 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 87 

The young promptly DESERTED. — You will notice that if you disturb and drive off any portion of the 
rookery, by walking up in plaiu sight, those nearest to you will take to the water, instantly swim out to a 
distance of fifty yards or SO, leaving their pups behind, helplessly sprawled around and about the rocks al your 
feet. Huddled up all together in the water in two or three packs or squads, the startled parents hold their heads 
and necks high out of the sea, peeving keenly at you, and all roaring iu an incessant concert, making an orchestra 
to which those deep sonorous tones of the organ iu that great Mormon tabernacle, at Salt Lake City, constitute the 
fittest and most adequate resemblance. 

MOVEMENTS WHEN UNDISTURBED ox ROOKERY. — You will witness an endless tide of these animals traveling 
to the water, and a steady stream of their kind coming out. if you but keep in retirement and do not disturb them. 
When they first issue from the surf they are a dark chocolate-brown and black, and glisten ; but, as their coats dry 
oil', the color becomes an iron-gray, passing into a bright golden rufous, which covers the entire body alike — shades 
of darker brown on the pectoral patches and sterno-pectoral region. After getting entirely dry. they seem to grow 
exceedingly uneasy, and act as though oppressed by heat, until they plunge back into the sea. never staying out, as 
the fur-seal does, day after da; and week after week. The females and the young males frolic in and out of the 
water, over rocks awash, incessantly one with another, just as puppies play upon the geeen sward ; and, when 
weary, stretch themselves out in any attitude that will fit the character of the rock, or the lava-shingle upon which 
they may happen to be resting; the movements of their supple spines, and ball-and-socket joint attachments, 
permit of the most extraordinary contortions of the trunk and limbs, all of which, no matter how distressing to 
your eyes, they seem actually to relish. But, the old battle-scarred bulls of the harem stand or lie at their positions 
day and night without leaving them, except to take a short bath when the coast is clear, until the end of the season. 

Method OF SWIMMING. — When swimming, the sea-lion only lifts its head above the surface long enough to 
take a deep breath, and then drops down a few feet below, and propels itself, for about ten or fifteen minutes, like 
a cigar-steamer, at the rate of or 7 knots, if undisturbed; but, if chased or alarmed, if seems fairly to fly under 
water, and can easily maintain for a long time a speed of 14 or 15 miles per hour. Like the fur-seal, its propulsion 
through the water is the work entirely of the powerful fore-flippers, which are simultaneously struck out, both 
together, and back against the water, feathering forward again to repeat, while the hind-flippers are simply used 
as a rudder oar in deflecting the ever-varying swift and abrupt course of the animal. On land the hind-flippers are 
employed just as a dog does his feet iy scratching fleas — the long peculiar toe-nails thereof seeming to reach and 
comb the spots affected by vermin, which annoys them, as it does the fur-seal to a great extent, and causes them 
both to enjoy a protracted scratching. 

Again, both genera, Callorhinm and Eumetopias, are happiest when the surf is strongest and wildest; just in 
proportion to the fury of a gale, so much the greater joy and animation of these animals. They delight in riding on 
the crests of each dissolving breaker up to the moment when it fairly foams over the iron-bound rocks; at that 
instant they disappear like phantoms beneath the creamy surge to reappear on the crown of the next mighty billow. 

When lauding, they always ride on the surf, so to speak, to the objective point, and it is marvelous to see with 
what remarkable agility they will worm themselves up steep, rocky landings, having an inclination greater than 
45°, to those bluff tops above, which have an almost perpendicular drop to water. 

The value op the sea-lion, commercially^ Shedding. — As the sea-lion is without fur, its skin has little 
or no commercial value.* The hair is short, an inch to an inch and a half in length, being longest over the nape of 
the neck; straight, and somewhat coarse, varying iu color as the season comes and goes. For instance, when the 
Eumetopias makes its first appearance in the spring and dries out after landing, it has then a light brownish 
rufous-tint, with darker shades back and under the fore flippers and on the abdomen; by the expiration of a month 
or six weeks, about the 15th of June generally, this coat will then be weathered into a glossy rufous, or ocher; and 
this is soou before shedding, which sets iu by the middle of August, or a little earlier. After the new coat has 
fairly grown, and just before the animal leaves the island for the sea in November, it is a light sepia or Vandyke 
brown, with deeper shades, almost black, upon the abdomen. The cows after shedding never color up so darkly as 
the bulls; but When they come back to the land next year they return identically the same in tinting: so that the 
eye, iu glancing over a sea-lion rookery during June and July, cannot discern any dissimilarity in color, at all 
noteworthy, existing between the coats of the bulls and the cows ; and also the young males and yearlings appear 
in the same golden-brown and ocher, with here and there an animal which is noted as being spotted somewhat like 
a leopard, the yellow rufous-ground predominating, with patches of dark-brown, blotched, and mottled irregularly 

*The sea-lion ami hair-seals of Bering son. having no commercial value in the eyes of civilized men. have not heen subjects of interest 
enough to the pioneers of those waters for mention in particular ; such record, for instance, as that given of the walrus, the sea-otter, and 
the fur-seal. Stiller was the first to draw the line clearly hetween them and seals in general, especially denning their separation from the 
fur-seal ; still, his description is for from being definite or satisfactory in the light of our present knowledge of the animal. 

In the South Pacitic and Atlantic the sea-lion has been curiously confounded by many of the earliest writers with the sea-elephant, 
Macrorhinus Ironimis, and its reference is inextricably entangled with the fur-seal at the Falklands. Kerguelen's Land, and the Ciozettes. 
The proboscidean seal, however, seems to be the only pinniped which visns the Antarctic continent : but that is a mere inference of mine, 
because so little is known of those ice-bound coasts, and Wilkes, who gives the only record made of the subject, saw no other animal 
there save this one. 



88 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

interspersed over the anterior regions down to those posterior. I have never seen any of the old bulls or cows 
tlms mottled, and this is likely due to some irregularity of shedding in the younger animals; for I have not noticed 
it early in the season, and it seems to fairly fade away so as not to be discerned on the same animal at the close of 
its summer solstice. Many of the old bulls have a grizzled or "salt and pepper" look during the shedding period, 
which is from the 10th of August up to the 10th or 20th of November. The pups, when born, are a rich dark-chestnut 
brown; this coat they shed in October, and take one much lighter in its stead; still darker, however, than their 
parents. 

Arrival at and departure from the Pribylov islands. — The time of arrival at, stay on, and 
departure from, the islands, is about the same as that which I have recorded as characteristic of the fur-seal; 
but, if the winter is an open, mild one, some of the sea-lions will frequently be seen about the shores during 
the whole year; and then the natives occasionally shoot them, long after the fur-seals have entirely disappeared. 

Great range of sea-lion: It is not restricted to the seal-islands — Again, it does not confine 
its landing to the Pribylov islands alone, as the fur-seal unquestionably does, with reference to such terrestrial 
location in our own country. On the contrary, it is a frequent visitor to almost all of the Aleutian islands, and 
ranges, as I have said before, over the mainland coast of Alaska, south of Bristol bay, and about the Siberian shores 
to the westward, throughout the Kuriles and the Japanese northern waters.* 

Differences between Zalophus and Eumetopias. — When I first returned, in 1873, from the seal-islands, 
those authors, whose conclusions were accepted prior to my studies there, had agreed in declaring that the 
sea-lion, so common off the port of San Francisco, was the same animal also common in Alaska, and the Pribylov 
islands in especial; but my drawings from life, and studies, quickly pointed out the error, for it was seen that 
the creature most familiar to the Californians was an entirely different animal from my subject of study on the 
seal-islands. In other words, while scattered examples of the Eumetopias were, and are, unquestionably about 
and off the harbor of San Francisco, yet nine-tenths of the sea-lions there observed were a different animal — 
they were the Zalophus Calif or nianiis. This Zalophus is not much more than half the size of Eumetopias, relatively ; 
it has the large, round, soft eye of the fur-seal, and the more attenuated Newfoundland-dog-like muzzle; and 
it never roars, but breaks out incessantly with a honk, honk, honking bark, or howl. 

No example of Zalophus has ever been observed in the waters of Bering sea, nor do I believe that it goes 
northward of Cape Flattery. 

Early disposition of sea-lions on St. George. — According to the natives of St. George, some fifty 
or sixty years ago the Eumetopias held almost exclusive possession of the island, being there in great numbers, 
some two or three hundred thousand strong ; and they aver, also, that the fur-seals then were barely permitted 
to land by these animals, and in no great number ; therefore, they say, that they were directed by the Eussians 
(that is, their ancestry) to hunt and worry the sea-lions off from the island, the result being that, as the sea-lions 
left, the fur-seals came, so that to-day they occupy nearly the same ground which the Eumetopias alone covered 
sixty years ago. I call attention to this statement of the people because it is, or seems to be, corroborated in 
the notes of a French naturalist and traveler, who, in his description of the island of St. George, which he 
visited fifty years ago, makes substantially the same representation ; t but directly to the contrary, and showing 
how difficult it is to trace these faint records of the facts, I give the account as rendered by Bishop Veniaminov, 
which I translate and place in my appendix. The reader will notice that the Russian author differs entirely from 
the natives and the Frenchman; for, by his tabulation, almost as many fur-seals were taken on St. George during 
the first years of occupation as were taken from St. Paul; and according to these figures, again continued, the 

* The winter of 1872-73, -which I passed on the Priliylov islands, was so rigorous that the shores were ice-hound and the sea covered 
with floes from January until the 28th of May; hence, I did not have an opportunity of seeing, for myself, whether the sea-lion remains 
about its breeding-grounds there throughout that period. The natives say that a few of them, when the sea is open, are always to be 
found, at any day during the winter and early spring, hauled out at Northeast point, ou Otter island, and around St. George. They are,' 
in my opinion, correct ; and, being in such small numbers, the " seevitchic " undoubtedly fiud enough subsisteuce iu local Crustacea, pisces, 
and other food. The natives, also, further stated that none of the sea-lions which we observe on the islands during the breeding-season 
leave the waters of Bering sea from the date of their birth to the time of their death. I am also inclined to agree with this proposition, 
as a general rule, though it would be strange if Pribylov sea-lions did not occasionally slip into the North Pacific, through and below the 
Aleutian chain, a short distance, even to traveling as far to the eastward as Cook's inlet. Eumetopias Stelleri is well known to breed at 
many places between Attoo and Kadiak islands. I did not see it at St. Matthew, however, and I do not think it has ever bred there, 
although this island is only 200 miles away to the northward of the seal-islands— too many polar bears. Whalers speak of having shot 
it in the ice-packs in a much higher latitude, nevertheless, than that of St. Matthew. I can find uo record of its breeding anywhere on 
the islands or mainland coast of Alaska north of the 57th parallel or south of the 53d parallel of north latitude. It is common on the 
coast of Kamtchatka, the Kurile islands, and the Commander group, in Russian waters. 

There are vague and ill-digested rumors of finding Eumetopias on the shores of Prince of Wales and Queen Charlotte islands in 
breeding-rookeries; I donbt it. If it were so, it would be authoritatively known by this time. We do find it in small numbers on the 
Farralone rocks, off the entrance to the harbor of San Francisco, where it breeds iu company with, though sexually apart from, an 
overwhelming majority of Zalophus; and it is creditably reported as breeding again to the southward, on the Santa Barbara, Gu.idaloupe, 
and other islands of southern and Lower California, consorting there, as on the Farralones, with an infinitely larger number of the lesser- 
bodied Zalophus. 

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THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 89 

catch never has been less than one-sixth of the number of the quota on the larger island. Tims the two authors 
seem to stand each other off, and 1 am thrown back to the ground itself for an answer, which I am inclined to 
believe will be correct, when I say that the islaud of St. George never was resorted to in any great numbers by 
the fur-seal, and that the sea lion was the dominant animal there until disturbed and driven from its breeding- 
grounds by the people, who naturally sought to encourage its more valuable relative by so doing, and made room, 
In this way, for it. 

16. CAPTURE OF TIIE SEA-LIOX. 

THE driving on St. Paul. — The great intrinsic value to the domestic service of the Aleuts rendered by the 
flesh, fat, and sinews of this animal, together with its skin, arouses the natives of St. Paul and St. George, 
who annually make a drive of "seevitchie", by which they capture, on the former island, two or three hundred, 
as the case may be. On St. George, driving is so much more difficult, owing to the character of the land itself, 
that very few are secured there; but, at St. Paul unexceptional advantages are found on Northeast point lor the 
capture of these shy and wary brutes. The natives of St. Paul, therefore, are depended upon to secure the 
necessary number of skins required by both islands for their boats, aud other purposes. This capture of the 
sea-lion is the only serious business which the people have on St. Paul; it is a labor of great care, industry, and 
some physical risk for the Aleutian hunters.* 

By reference to my sketch-map of Northeast point rookery, the observer will notice a peculiar neck or boot- 
shaped point, which 1 have designated as Sea Lion neck. This area is a spot upon which a large number of sea- 
lions are always to be found during the season. As they are so shy, and sure to take to water upon the appearance 
or presence of man near by, the natives adopt this plan : 

Preparations for the drive. — Along by the middle or end of September, as late sometimes as November, 
and after the fur-seal rookeries have broken up for the season, lift ecu or twenty of the very best men in the village 
are selected, by one of their chiefs, for a sea-lion rendezvous at Northeast point; they go up there with their 
provisions, tea aud sugar, and blankets, and make themselves at home in the barrabbora aud houses, which 1 have 
located on the sketch-map of Novastoshnah, prepared to stay, if necessary, a month, or until they shall get the whole 
drove together of two or three hundred sea-lions. 

Methods of driving sea lions. — The "seevitchie", as the natives call these animals, cannot be approached 
successfully by daylight, so these hunters lie by, in this house of Webster's, until a favorable night comes along — 
one in which the moon is partially obscured by drifting clouds, and the wind blows over them from the rookery 
where the sea lions lie ; such an opportunity being afforded, they step down to the beach at low water, and proceed 
to creep on all fours over the surf-beaten sand and bowlders up to the dozing herd, and between it aud the high- 
water mark where it rests. In this way, a small body of natives, crawling along in Indian file, may pass unnoticed 
by the sea-lion sentries, which doubtless, in the uncertain light see, but confound, the forms of their human enemies 
with those of seals. When the creeping Aleuts have all reached the strip of beach that is left bare by ebb-tide, 
which is between the water and the unsuspecting animals, at a given signal from their crawling leader they all at 
once leap to their feet, shout, yell, brandishing their arms, and firing off pistols, while the astonished and terrified 
lions roar and flounder in all directions. 

Behavior of the sea-lions when surprised. — If, at the moment of surprise, the brutes are slei ping 
with their heads pointed toward the water, they rise up in fright and charge straight on in that way directly over 
the men themselves, but if their heads have been resting at this instant pointed landward, up they rise and follow 
that course just as desperately, and nothing will turn them either one way or the other; those sea-lions which 
charged for the water are lost, of course ;t but the natives promptly follow up the land-turned animal with a rare 

* A curious, though doubtless authentic, story was told me, in this connection, illustrative of the strcnglh and energy of the sea-lion 
bull when at bay. Many years ago (IS 171, on St. Paul island, a drive of September sea-lions was brought down to the village in the usual 
style ; but when the natives assembled to kill them, on account of the great scarcity, at that time, of powder on the island, it was voted 
best to lance the old males also, as well as the females, rather than shoot them in the customary style. The people had hardly set to work 
at the task when one of their number, a sma I, elderly, though tough, able-bodied Aleut, while thrusting his lance into the "life'' of a largo 
bull, was suddenly seen to fall on his back, directly under the huge brute's head; instantly the powerful jaws of the "seevitchie" closed 
upon the waistband, apparently, of the native, and, lifting the yelling man aloft, as a eat would a kitten, the sea-lion shook and threw 
him high into the air. away over the heads of his associates, who rushed up to the rescue, and quickly destroyed the animal by a dozen 
furious spear-thrusts, yet death did not loosen its clenched jaws, in which were the tattered fragments of Ivan's clothing. 

tThe natives appreciate this peculiarity of the sea-lion very keenly, for good and sufficient cause, though none- of them have ever 
been badly injured in driving, or "springing the alarm". I camped with them for six successive nights in September, 1872, in order 1o 
witness the whole procedure. During the several drives made while I was with them, I saw but one exciting incident : everything went 
off in the orthodox manner, as described in the text above. The exceptional incident occurred during the first drive of the first night, and 
rendered the natives so cautious that it was not repeated. When the alarm was sprung, old Luka Jlandrigan was leading the van. and 
at that moment, down upon him, despite his wildly gesticulating arms ami vociferous yelling, came a squad of hull "seevitchie". The 
native saw instantly that they were pointed for tin writer, and. in his sound sense, turm d to run from under, his tarbosar slipped upon a 
slimy rock awash, he fell fiat as a flounder, just as a dozen or more big sea-lions plunged over and on to his prostrate form in the shallow 
water. In less time than this can be written, the heavy pinnipeds had disappeared, while the bullet-like head of old Luka was quickly 
raised, and he trotted back to us with an alternation of mirth and chagriu in his voice ; he was not hurt in the least. 



90 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

combination of horrible noises and demoniacal gesticulations, until the first frenzied spurt and exertions of the 
terrified creatures so completely exhaust them that they fall panting, gasping, prone upon the earth, extended in 
spite of their huge bulk and powerful muscles, helpless, and at the mercy of their cunning captors; who, however, 
instead of slaying them as they lie, rudely rouse them up again, and urge the herd along to the house, in which they 
have been keeping this watch during the several days past. 

TnE "corral". — Here, at this point, is a curious stage in the proceedings. The natives drive up to that 
" Webster's" house the 25 or 30 or 40 sea-lions, as the case may be, which they have just captured — they seldom get 
more at any one time — and keep them in a corral or pen right by the barrabbora, on the flattened surface of a sand- 
ridge, in the following comical manner : when they have huddled up the " pod", they thrust stakes down around 
it at intervals of 10 to 30 feet, to which strips of cotton cloth are fluttering as flags, and a line or two of sinew-rope, 
or thong of hide, is strung from pole to pole around the group, making a circular cage, as it were ; withiu this flimsy 
circuit the stupid sea -lions are securely imprisoned; and though they are incessantly watched by two or three men, 
the whole period of caging and penning which I observed, extending over nine or ten days and nights, passed with- 
out a single, effort being made by the "seevitchie" to break out of their flimsy bonds; and it was passed by these 
animals not in stupid quiescence, but in alert watchfulness; writhing, twisting, turning one upon and over the other. 

By this method of procedure, after the lapse usually of two or three weeks, a succession of favorable nights 
will have occurred ; and the natives secure their full quota, which, as I have said before, is expressed by a herd 
of two or three hundred of these animals. 

Preparation and method of driving to the village. — The complement filled, the natives prepare 
to drive their herd back to the village, over the grassy and mossy uplands and intervening stretches of sand- 
dune tracts, fully eleven miles, preferring to take the trouble of prodding the clumsy brutes, wayward and 
obstinate as they are, rather than to pack their heavy hides in and out of boats; making, in this way, each sea lion 
carry its own skin and blubber down to the doors of their houses in the village. If the weather is normally wet 
and cold, this drive, or caravan of sea-lions, can be di iven to the point of destination in five or six days ; but, should 
it be dry and warmer than usual, three weeks, and even longer, will elapse before the circuit is traversed. 

When the drive is started the natives gather around the herd on all sides, save the opening which they leave 
pointing to the direction in which they desire the animals to travel ; and, in this manner they escort and urge the 
"seevitchie" on to their final resting and slaughter near the village. The young lions and the females being 
much lighter than the males, less laden with fat or blubber, take the lead; for they travel twice and thrice as easy 
and as fast as the old males; which, by reason of their immense avoirdupois, are iucapable of moving ahead more 
than a few rods at a time, when they are completely checked by sheer loss of breath, though the vanguard of the 
females allures them strongly on ; but, when an old sea-lion feels his wind coming short, he is sure to stop, sullenly 
and surlily turning upon the drivers, not to move again until his lungs are clear. 

In this method and manner of conduction the natives stretch the herd out in extended file, or, as a caravan, 
over the line of march, and, as the old bulls pause to savagely survey the field and catch their breath, showing their 
wicked teeth, the drivers have to exercise every art and all their ingenuity in arousing them to fresh efforts. This 
they do by clapping boards and bones together, firing fusees, and waving flags; and, of late, and best of all, the 
blue gingham umbrella repeatedly opened and closed in the face of an old bull has been a more effective starter than 
all the other known artifices or savage expedients of the natives.* 

* The curious behavior of the sea-lions iu the Big lake, -when they are en route and driven from Novastoshnah to the village, deserves 
mention. After the drove gets over the sand-dunes and beach between Webster's house and the extreme northeastern head of the 
lake, a halt is called and the drove "penned" on the bank there; then, when the sea-lious are well rested, they are started up, and 
pell-mell iuto the water; two natives, in a bidarka, keep them from turning out from shore into the broad bosom of Meesulkmahnee, while 
auother bidarka paddles in their rear and follows their swift passage right down the eastern shore ; in this method of procedure, the 
drive carries itself uearly two miles by water in less than twenty minutes from tho time the sea-lions are first turned in, at the north end, 
to the moment when they are driven out at the southeastern elbow of the Big pond. The shallowness of the water here accounts probably 
for the strange failure of the sea-lions to regain their liberty, and so retards their swimming as to enable the bidarka, with two men, 
to keep abreast of their leaders easily, as they plunge ahead ; and, "as one goes, so go all sheep," it is not necessary to pay attention to 
those which straggle behind in the wake ; they are stirred up by the second bidarka, and none make the least attempt to diverge from the 
trade which the swifter mark out iu advance ; if they did, they could escape ' ' scot-free " in any one of the twenty minutes of this aquatic 
passage. 

By consulting the map of St. Paul, it will be observed that in a direct line between the village and Northeast point there are quite 
a number of small lakes, including this large one of Meesulkmahnee ; into all of these ponds the sea-lion drove is successively driven ; 
this interposition of fresh water at such frequent intervals serves to shorten the time of the journey fully ten days in warmish weather, 
and at least four or five under the best of climatic conditions. 

This track between Webster's house and the village killing-grounds is strewn' with the bones of Eumeiopias. They will drop in their 
tracks, now and then, even when carefully driven, from cerebral or spinal congestion principally ; and when they are hurried the mortality 
™ route is very great. The natives when driving them, keep them going day and night alike, but give them frequent resting spells after 
every spurt ahead. The old bulls flounder along for a hundred yards or so, then sullenly halt to regain breath, five or ten minutes being 
allowed them, then they are stirred up again, and so on, hour after hour, until the tedious transit is completed. 

The younger sea-lions, and the cows which are in the drove, carry themselves easily far ahead of the bulls, and being thus always in 
the van, serve unconsciously to stimulate and coax the heavy males to travel. Otherwise, I do not believe that a band of old bulls, 
exclusively, could be driven down over this long road successfully. 



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THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 91 

Arrival of the drive at the village. — The procession of sea lions managed in this strange manner 
day and night — for the natives never let up — is finally broughl to rest within a stone's throw of the village, which 
has pleasurably anticipated, tor days, and for weeks, its arrival, and rejoices in its appearance. The men get out 
their old rifles and large sea-lion lances, and sharpen their knives, while the women look well to their oil-pouches, 
and repair to the field of slaughter with meat-baskets on their heads. 

MANNER in which THE killing is conditcted. — No attempt is made, even by the boldest Aleut, to destroy 
an old bull sea-lion by spearing the enraged and powerful beast, which, now familiar with man and conscious as 
it were of his puny strength, would seize the lance between its jaws and shake it from the hands of the stoutest 
one in a moment. Recourse is had to the rifle. The herd is started up the sloping flanks of the Black Bluff hill- 
side ; the females speedily take the front, while the old males hang behind. Then the marksmen, walking up to 
within a few paces of each animal, deliberately draw their, sights upon their heads and shoot them just between 
the eye and the car. The old males thus destroyed, the cows and females are in turn surrounded by the natives, 
who, dropping their rifles, thrust the heavy iron lances into their trembling bodies at a point behind the fore-flip- 
pers, touching the heart with a single lunge. It is an unparalleled spectacle, dreadfully cruel and bloody.* 

17. ECONOMIC USES OE THE SEA-LION. 

High appreciation of the sea-lion by the Aleuts. — Although the sea-lion has little or no commercial 
value for us, yet to the service of the natives themselves, who live all along the Bering sea coast of Alaska, 
Kamchatka, and the Kuriles, it is invaluable; they set great store by it. It supplies them with its hide, 
moustaches, flesh, fat, sinews, and intestines, which they make up iuto as many necessary garments, dishes, etc. 
They have abundant reason to treasure its skin highly, for it is the covering to their neat bidarMes and bidarrahs, 
the former being the small kyalc of Bering sea, while the latter is a boat of all work, exploration, and transportation. 
These skins are nnhaired by sweating in a pile; then they are deftly sewed and carefully stretched over a light 
keel and frame of wood, making a perfectly water-tight boat that will stand, uninjured, the softening influence of 
water for a day or two at a time, if properly air-dried and oiled. After being used during the day, these skin boats 
are always drawn out on the beach, turned bottom-side up and air-dried during the night ; in this way made ready 
for employment again on the morrow, t 

Value of the intestines. — A peculiar value is attached to the intestines of the sea-lion, which, after 
skinning, are distended with air and allowed to dry in that shape; then they are cut into ribbons and sewed strongly 

"This surrounding of the cows, is, perhaps, the strangest procedure on the islands. To fully appreciate the subject, the reader must 
first call to his mind's eye the fact that these female sea-lions, though small beside the males, are yet large animals; seven and eight feet 
long, and weighing, each, as much as any lour or live average men. But, in spite of their Strength and agility, fifteen or twenty Aleuts, 
with a rough, iron-tipped lance in their hands, will surround a drove of 50 or 150 of them by forming a noisy, gesticulating circle, 
gradually closing up, man to man, until the sea-lions are literally piled in a writhing, squirming, struggling mass, one above the other, 
three or four deep, heads, flippers, bellies, backs all so woven and interwoven in this panic-stricken heap of terrified creatures, thai it 
delies adequate description. The natives spear the cows on top, which, as they sink in death, are mounted in turn by the live animals 
underneath; these meet the deadly lance, in order, and so on until the whole herd is quiet and stilled in the fatal ebbing of their heart's 
blood. 

tWhen slowly sketching, by measurements, the outlines of a fine adult bull sea-lion which the ball from Booterin's rifle had just 
destroyed, an old "starooka" came up abruptly ; not seeming to see me. she deliberately threw down a large, greasy, skin meat bag. ami 
whipping out a knife, went to work on my specimen. Curiosity prompted me to keep still in spite of the first sensations of annoyance, SO 
that I might watch her choice and use of the animal's carcass. She first removed the skin, being actively aided in this operation by an 
uncouth boy; she then cut oil' the palms to both fore-flippers; the boy at the same time pulled on; the moustache bristles; she then cut out 
its gullet, from the glottis to its junction with the stomach, carefully divested it of all fleshy attachments, and fat; she then cut out the 
stomach itself, and turned it inside out, carelessly scraping the gastric walls free of copious biliary secretions, the inevitable bunch of 
ascaris; she then told the boy to take hold of the duodenum end of the small intestine, and as he walked away with it she rapidly 
cleared it of its attachments, so that it was thus uncoiled to its full length of at least Gil feet ; t hen she severed it, and then it was recoiled by 
the "melehiska", and laid up with the other members just removed, except the skin, which she had nothing more to do with. Sho 
then cut out the liver and ate several large pieces of that workhouse of the, blood before dropping it into the meat-pouch. Sho then 
raked up several handfuls of the "leaf-lard", or hard, white fat that is found in moderate quantity around the viscera of all 
these pinnipeds, which she also dumped into the flesh-bag ; she then drew her knife through the large heart, but did Dot touch 
it otherwise, looking at it intently, however, as it still quivered in unison with the warm flesh of the whole carcass. She and the boy 
then poked their fingers into the tumid lobes of the immense lungs, cutting out portions of them only, which were also put into the grimy 
pouch aforesaid; then she secured the gall-bladder and slipped it into a small yeast-powder tin, which was produced by the urchin: then 
she finished her economical dissection by cutting the sinews out of the back in unbroken bulk from the cervical vertebra to the sacrum ; 
all these were stuffed into that skin bag, which she threw on her back and supported it by a band over her head; she then trudged 
back to the barrabkie from whence she sallied a short hour ago. like an old vulture to the slaughter: she made the following disposition 
of its contents: The palms were used to sole a pair of tarbosars. or native boots, of which, the uppers and knee tops were made of the gullets — 
one sea-lion gullet to each boot top; the stomach was carefully blown up, and left to dry on the barrabkie roof, eventually to lie tilled 
with oil rendered from sea-lion or fur-seal blubber. The small Intestine was carefully injected with water and cleansed, then distended 
with air. and pegged out between two stakes, 60 feet apart, with little cross-slats here and there between to keep it clear of the ground. 
When it is thoroughly dry, it is ripped up in a straight line with its length and pressed out into a broad band of parchment gut, which she 
cuts up and uses in making a water-proof "kamlaikie". sewing if with those sinews taken from the back. The liver, leaf-lard, and lobes 
of the lungs were eaten without further cooking, and the little gall-bag was for some use in poulticing a scrofulous sore. The moustache- 



92 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

together into that most characteristic water-proof garment of the world, known as the "kamlaika";* which, while 
being fully as waterproof as India rubber, lias far greater strength, and is never affected by grease and oil. It is 
also transparent in its fitting over dark clothes. The sea-lions' throats are served in a similar manner, and, when 
cured, are made into boot tops, which are in turn soled by the tough skin that composes the palms of this animal's 
fore-flippers. 

Stomach-walls used as oil-pouches. — Around the natives' houses, on St. Paul and St. George, constantly 
appear curious objects which, to the unaccustomed eye, resemble overgrown gourds or enormous calabashes with 
attenuated necks; an examination proves them to be the dried, distended stomach- walls of the sea-lion, filled with 
its oil; which, nnlike the offensive blubber of the fur-seal, boils out clear and inodorous from its fat. The flesh of 
an old sea-lion, while not very palatable, is tasteless and dry; but the meat of a yearling is very much like veal, and 
when properly cooked I think it is just as good ; but the superiority of the sea-lion meat over that of the fur-seal 
is decidedly marked. It requires some skill, in the cuisine, ere sausage and steaks of the Callorhinus are accepted 
on the table ; while it does not, however, require much art, experience, or patience for the cook to serve up the juicy 
ribs of a young sea-lion so that the most fastidious palate will fail to relish it. 

Caring- for the flesh. — The carcass of the sea-lion, after it is stripped of its hide, and disemboweled, is hung 
up in cool weather by its hiad-flippers, over a rude wooden frame or " labaas ", as the natives call it, where, together 
with many more bodies of fur-seals treated in the same manner, it serves from November until the following season 
of May, as the meat-house of the Aleut on St. Paul and St. George. Exposed in this manner to the open weather, 
the natives keep their seal-meat almost any length of time, in winter, for use ; and, like our old duck and bird hunters, 
they say they prefer to have the meat tainted rather than fresh, declaring that it is most tender and toothsome 
when decidedly " loud ". 

Chinese demand for whiskers. — The tough, elastic moustache bristles of the sea-lion are objects of great 
commercial activity by the Chinese, who prize them highly for pickers to their opium pipes, and several ceremonies 
peculiar to their joss houses. These lip bristles of the fur-seal are usually too small and too elastic for this service. 
The natives, however, always carefully pluck them out of the Uumetopias, and get their full value in exchange. 

Diet of the sea-lion. — The. sea-lion also, as in the case of the fur-seal, is a fish-eater, pure and simple, though 
he, like the latter, occasionally varies his diet by consuming a limited amount of juicy sea-weed fronds, and tender 
marine crustaceans; but he hunts no animal whatever for food, nor does he ever molest, up here, the sea-fowl that 
incessantly hovers over his head, or sits in flocks without fear on the surface of the waters around him. He, like 
the Callorhinus, is, without question, a mighty fisherman, familiar with every submarine haunt of his piscatorial 
prey; and, like his cousin, rejects the heads of all those fish which have hard horny mouths, or are filled with teeth 
or bony plates.t 



G. THE WALKUS OF BEKING SEA (ODOB^NUS OBESUS). 

18. LIFE-HISTORY OP THE WALRUS. 

Voluminous writings relative to the walrus. — When I first set out for the seal-islands, from the 
Smithsonian Institution, in 1872, I fancied that, as far as the walrus was concerned, I should have nothing to learn, 
because of the literature on that subject which I had read, from the Congressional Library, viz : 

The curious histories written by Olaus Magnus, in 1555; by Gesner, in 1558; by Martens, in 1675; by Pennant, 
in 1781-1702 ; by Buffon, in 1785; and by Cuvier, in 1816; together with an almost innumerable list of authors who 
have since contributed papers on the walrus and its character to nearly all the learned associations of the world. 

liristles were a venture of the boy, who gathers all that he can, then sends them to San Francisco, where they find a ready sale to the Chinese, 
who pay about one cent apiece for them. When the natives cut np a sea-lion carcass, or one of a fur-seal, on the killing-grounds for meat, 
they take only the hams and the loins. Later in the season they eat the entire carcass, which they hang up by the hind-flippers on a 
" laahas" by their bouses. 

*The Aleutian name for this garment is unpronounceable in our language, and equally so in the more flexible Russian; hence the 
Alaskan "kaiulaika," derived from the Siberian "kamliiia." That is made of tanned reindeer skin, unhaired, and smoked by larch 
bark until it is colored a saffron yellow ; and is worn over the reindeer skin undershirt, which has the hair next to the owner's skin, and 
the obverse side stained red by a decoction of alder bark. The kamliiia is closed behind and before, and a hood, fastened to the back of 
the neck, is drawn over the head, when leaving shelter; so is the Aleutian kanilaika; only the one of Kolyma is used to keep out piercing 
dry cold, while the garment of the Bering sea is a perfect water repellant. 

tMany authorities, who are quoted in regard to the habits of the hair-seals and southern sea-lions, speak with much fine detail 
of having witnessed the capture of sea-fowl by FkoddCB and Olariidiv. To this point of inquiry on tho Pribylov islands, I gave continued 
close attention; because, off and around all of the rookeries large flocks of auks, arries, gulls, shags, and chooehkies were swimming 
upon the water, and shifting thereupon incessantly, day and night, throughout the late spring, summer, and early fall. During the four 
seasons of my observation I never saw the slightest motion made by a fur-seal or sea-lion, a hair-seal, or a walrus toward intentionally 
disturbing a single bird, much less of capturing and eating it. Had these seals any appetite for sea-fowl, this craving could have been 
abundantly satisfied at the expense of absolutely no effort on their part. That none of these animals have any taste for water-birds I am 
thoroughly assured. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 93 

With this imposing list of authorities in my mind, I thought I had reason to believe that there was nothing about 
this pinniped which I should find new, or even interesting to science. 

THE "walrus OF Bering sea. — When, therefore, looking for the hist time upon the walrus of Bering sea, 
judge of my astonishment as 1 beheld the animal before me. It was a new species; it was a new creature, or all 
that had been written by live hundred authors in regard to the appearance and behavior of its Atlantic cousin was 
in error. The natives who accompanied me were hurriedly summoned to my side, called from their eager task of 
picking up birds" eggs. "Are these walrus sick?" said I. They looked at me iu astonishment ; "JS T o, they are not." 
"Do they always look like that J" " Serovnah,"* was the answer. 

Such was my introduction to Eoamarus arcticm (Pallas), and the occasion of my describing it in 1S73, for the 
first time, as the walrus of Bering sea — a distinct and separate animal, specifically, from its congener of the 
North Atlantic. Odobcenus rosmarus (Allen).t 

Walrus on the Pbibtlov islands. — In early days, when the Pribvlov islands were first occupied by the 
Russians, report has it that large numbers of these creatures frequented the entire coast line of St. Paul island, and 
many were found around St. George; but, being relatively more timid than the sea lion in respect to the presence 
of man, they rapidly disappeared as he took possession of (he land; the disappearance, however, was not total — 
a few of them every year were and can now be observed upon that little rocky islet, lying six miles to the 
southeast of the Northeast point of St. Paul island, owing to its comparative isolation; since the natives only go 
there once a year, and then only for a lew days during the egging season.J 

Selection of landings by walrus herds. — The walrus rests upon the low rocky tables characteristic 
of (his place, without being disturbed; hence the locality afforded me a particularly pleasant and advantageous 
opportunity of minutely observing these animals. My observations, perhaps, would not have passed over a few 
moments of general notice, had I found the picture presented by them such as I had drawn in my mind from the 
descriptions of the army of writers cited above; the contrary, however, stamping itself so suddenly and decidedly 
upon my eye, set me to work with pen and brush iu noting and portraying the extraordinary brutes, as they lay 
grunting and bellowing, unconscious of my presence, and not ten feet from the ledge upon which I sat.§ 

Life-studies of the HEED. — Sitting as I did to the leeward of them, a strong wind blowing at the time from 
seaward, which, ever and anon, fairly covered many of them with the foaming surf-spray, they took no notice of me 
during the three or more hours of my study. I was first surprised at observing the raw, naked appearance of the 

* Just the same. 

i Allen, in rcvie wing the history of this species, cites the hesitating opinions of Pennant, in 1792; of Shaw, inlSOO; of F. Cuvier, in 1825; 
of Leidy, in 1860, all of whom suggest 1he specific distinctness of the Bering sea walrus, lmt give their ideas clouded by expressed hints or 
mental reservations. He shows, however, that Illiger, in 1811, formally recognized three varieties, lmt that this author gives nowhere his 
reasons for so doing; he named them Tricheeus rosmarus for the North Atlantic, and T. obesus and T. divergent for the Bering sea region and 
waters north of the straits thereof. Then Allen says, page 21, " I have met with nothing further touching this subject prior to Mr. 
H. W. Elliott's report on the seal-islands of Alaska, published in 1873, and he quotes it freely. Professor Allen has, however, done the 
osteological part of the work so well in his History of North American Pinnipeds, that now I deem it finished. 

While Allen agrees with me finally in my early determination of the Bering sea walrus as a distinct species from that of the Atlantic, 
lie seems to I asc all of his belief upon the osteological differentiation between them. 1 have had my faith in that one line of evidence as 
to genera and species, so sadly shaken by the amazing asymmetry and differences in the skulls and skeletons of the fur-seal which are 
bleaching out here side by side, thousands and tens of thousands of them, that I feel better satisiied with the characteristic external 
features of the- pinnipeds, which are really more lixed and exact among the hundreds of thousands on the Pribvlov islands. Perhaps ten 
thousand skulls of Odobccnits obesus would show a great number of examples which could not. alone by themselves, tie separated from types 
of 0. rosmarus. From my inspection of the wide range of variation presented iu a large series of Callorhinus and Eumetopias skulls, I do 
not have any hesitation in saying so. 

t As to the number of walrus on the Pribvlov islands in prehistoric time, ai d when the Russians first took possession of the same, 
1786-1737, I have not been aide to find any record of the least authentic value. Beyond the general legend of the natives that in olden 
times the " niorsjcc" were wont to haul in considerable number at Novashtoshnah and over the entire extent of the north and south shores 
of St. Paul, while herds were also common under the precipitous sea-walls of St. George. Gavrila Sarietschev, otic of the several 
imperial agents commissioned at intervals to examine into the affairs of the old Russian American Fur Company, in the details of his report 
made in December, 1805, incidentally slates, speaking of the walrus, that while they had abandoned the Pribvlov islands then, yet, 
formerly they were there iu such numbers that 2S,000 pounds of their teeth (tusks) were obtained in a single year ; as the average weight 
of well assorted walrus ivory is about 6 pounds to the head, of each animal, this memorandum of the agent shows that between 3,500 and 
4,000 walrus were taken then. From the quantity of old bones of Bosmarii which are constantly covered and uncovered by the caprice of 
the wind at Xahsayvernia and Novastoshnah. I should judge the Russian officer was correct. 

vS These favored basaltic tables are also commented upon in similar connection by an old writer in 1775, Shuldham, who calls them 
" echouries" ; he is describing the Atlantic walrus as it appears at the Magdalen islands: •• The echonries are formed principally by 
nature, being a gradual slope of soft rock, with which the Magdalen islands abound, about 80 to 100 yards wide at the water side, and 
spreading so as to contain, near the summit, a very considerable number." The tables at Walrus island and those at Southwest point, 
are very much less in area than those described by Shuldham, and are a small scries of low, saw-tooth jetties id' the harder basalt washed 
in relief, from a tufa matrix ; there is no room to the landward of them for many walruses to lie upon. The OdobwnuS does not like to haul 
up on loose or shingly shores, because it has the greatest difficulty in getting a solid hold for its fore-flippers with which to pry up and ahead 
its huge, clumsy body. When it hauls on a sand beach, it never attempts to crawl out to the dry region back of the surf, but lies just 
awash, at high water. In this fashion they used to rest all along the sand reaches of St. Paul prior to the Russian advent in 1786-1785 ; 
and when Shuldham was inditing his letters on the habits of Bosmams, Odobcenus was then lying out iu full force and great physical 
peace on the Pribvlov islands. 



94 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

hide, a skin covered with a multitude of pustular looking- warts and large boils or pimples, without hair or fur, 
save scattered and almost invisible hairs; the skin wrinkled in deep, flabby seam-folds, and marked by dark-red 
venous hues, which showed out in strong contrast through the thicker and thinner yellowish-brown cuticle, that in 
turn seemed to be scaling off in places as if with leprosy; indeed, a fair expression of this walrus-hide complexion, 
if I may use the term, can be understood by the inspection of those human countenances in the streets and on 
the highways of our cities which are designated as the faces of " bloats ". The forms of Rosmaras struck my eye 
at first in the most unpleasant manner, and the longer I looked at them the more heightened was my disgust; 
for they resembled distorted, mortified, shapeless masses of flesh; the clusters of swollen watery pimples, which 
were of yellow parboiled flesh-color, and principally located over the shoulders, and around the necks, painfully 
suggested unwholesomeuess. 

On examining the herd individually, and looking over perhaps 150 specimens directly beneath and within the 
purview of my observation, I noticed that there were no females among them; they were all males, and some of 
the younger ones had considerable hair, or enough of that close, short, brown coat to give a hairy tone to their 
bodies — hence I believe that it is only the old, wholly matured males which offered to my eyes their bare and 
loathsome nakedness. 

I observed, as they swam around, and before they landed, that they were clumsy in the water, not being able to 
swim at all like the Phocidce and the Otariclcc; but their progress in the sea was wonderfully alert when brought into 
comparison with that terrestrial action of theirs; the immense bulk and weight of this walrus contrasted with the size 
and strength of its limbs, renders it simply impotent when hauled out of the water, and on the low rocky beaches or 
shelves upon which it rests. Like the seal, however, it swims entirely under water when traveling, but it does not rise, 
in my opinion, so frequently to take breath ; when it does, it blows or snorts not unlike a whale. Often I have noticed 
this puffing snort of these animals, since the date of these observations on Walrus islet, when standing on the bluffs 
near the village of St. Paul and looking seaward ; on one cool, quiet morning in May especially, I followed with my eye a 
herd of walrus, tracing its progress some distance off and up along the east coast of the island very easily by the 
tiny jets of moisture or vapor from the confined breath, which the animals blew off as they rose to respire.* 

Methods op landing : Clumsy efforts. — In landing and climbing over the low, rocky shores at Morserovia,t 
this animal is fairly as clumsy and almost as indolent as the sloth. A herd crowds up from the water, one after 
the other, in the most ungainly manner, accompanying their movements with low grunts and bellowiugs; the 

* Mariners, while coasting in the Arctic, have often heen put on timely footing by the walrus fog-horn snorting and blowing when a 
ship dangerously sails silently in through dense fog toward land or ice-floes, upon which these animals may he resting ; indeed, these 
uncouth monitors to this indistinct danger rise and bob under and around a vessel like so many gnomes or demons of fairy romance; and 
the sailors may well be pardoned for much of the strange yarning which they have given to the reading world respecting the sea-horse, 
during the last three centuries; hut when we find Albert Magnus, and Gesner the sage, talking in the following extraordinary niauuer of 
the capture of Sosmarus, we are constrained to laugh heartily ; especially do we so, because a more shy, timid brute than the walrus of 
Bering sea never existed when he is hunted by man, unless it be the sea-otter. 

Says Gesner in 1558: "Therefore these fish called Kosmarii or Morsii, have heads fashioned like to an oxe, and a hairy skin, and hair 
growing as thick as straw or corn-reeds, that lie loose very largely. They will raise themselves with their teeth, as by ladders, to the very 
tops of rocks that they may feed upon the dewie grasse, or fresh water, and role themselves in it, and then go to the sea again, unless in the 
mean time they full very fast asleep, and rest upon the rocks, for then the fishermen make all the haste they can and begin at the tail, and 
part the skin from the fat; and into this that is parted they put most strong cords, and fasten them on the rugged rocks or trees that 
are near; and then they throw stones at his head, out of a sling, to raise him, and they compel him to descend spoiled of the greatest 
part of his skin which is fastened to the ropes; ho being thereby debilitated, fearful aud half dead, he is made a rich prey, especially for 
his teeth, that are very pretious amongst the Scythians, the Muscovites, Russians and Tartars (as ivory amongst the Indians) by reason of 
its hardness, whiteness and ponderousnesse". 

In spite of the many remarkable and well authenticated stories printed as to the ferocity of the Atlantic walrus when hunted, it can 
be safely said that no boat has ever been assailed by the Alaskan species, which is as large if not larger, and in every respect quite as able- 
bodied; the Eskimo capture them without danger or difficulty — mere child's play or woman's work — speariug aud lancing. By spearing, 
a line of walrus hide is made fast to the plethoric body of Ixosmarus, and when it has expended its surplus vitality by towing the natives a 
few miles in a mad frenzied burst of swimming, the bidarrah is quietly drawn up to its puffing form, close enough to permit the coup of 
an. ivory -headed lance, then towed to the beach at high water; when the ebb is well out, the huge carcass is skinned by its dusky 
butchers, who cut it up into large square chunks of flesh and blubber, which are deposited in the little "Dutch-oven" caches of each 
family that are waiting for its reception. 

Dressing the walrus hides is the only serious hard labor which the Alaskan Innuit subjects himself to; he cannot lay it entirely upon 
the women, as do the Sioux when they spread buffalo bodies all over the plains ; it is too much for female strength alone, aud so the 
men bear a hand right lustily in the business. It takes from four to six stout natives, when a green walrus hide is removed, to carry it 1o 
the sweating hole where it is speedily uuhaired; then stretched alternately upon air-frames and pinned over the earth, it is gradually 
scraped down to the requisite thinness for use in covering the bidarrah skeletons, etc. 

There are probably six or seven thousand human beings in Alaska who live alone by virtue of the existence of Rosmartis ; and, every 
year, when the season opens, they gather together by settlements, as they are contiguous, and discuss the walrus chances for the coming 
year as earnestly and as wisely as our farmers do, for instance, regarding the prospects for corn and potatoes. But the Eskimo huuter is 
a sadly improvident mortal, though he is not wasteful of morse life ; while we are provident, and yet wasteful of our resources. 

If the north pole is ever reached by our people, they will do so only when they can eat walrus meat, and get plenty of it ; at least that 
is my belief; aud knowing now what the diet is, I think the journey to the hyperborean ultima is a long one, though there is plenty of 
meat, and many men who want to try it. 

t ilorserovia, the Russian name for Walrus island; the natives also call Otter island by the Russian title of Bobrovia. 




2 a 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 95 

first one up from the sea no sooner gets composed upon the rocks for sleep, than the second one comes along, 
prodding and poking with its blunted tusks, demanding room also, and causes the first to change its position to 
another location still farther off and up from the water, a few feet beyond; then the second is in turn treated in 
the same way by a third, and soon until hundreds will be slowly packed together on the shore, as thickly as they 
can lie, never far back from the surf, however, pillowing their heads upon the bodies of one another, and not 
acting at all quarrelsome toward each other. Occasionally, in their lazy, phlegmatic adjusting and crowding, the 
posteriors of some old bull will/ be lifted up, and remain elevated in the air, while the passive owner sleeps with its 
head, perhaps, beueaih the pudgy form of its neighbor. 

Use OF tusks. — A great deal has been written in regard to the manner in which the walrus uses his 
enormous canines ; many authors have it that they are employed by Eosmants as lauding hooks, so that by sticking 
them into the icy noes, or inserting them between rocky interstices or inequalities, the clumsy brute aids his hauling 
out from the sea. I looked here at "Walrus island very closely for such manifestation of their service to the 
members of the herd, which was continually augmented by fresh arrivals from the surf while under my eye. They 
did not in a single instance use their tusks in this manner; it was all done by the fore flippers, and "boosting" of 
exceptionally heavy surf which rolled iu at wide intervals, and for which marine assistance the walrus themselves 
seemed to patiently wait.* 

With all this apparent indifference, however, they have established their reputation for vigilance in spite of it; 
and they resort to a very singular method of keeping guard, if I may so term it. In this herd of three or four 
hundred male walrus that were under my eyes, though nearly all were sleeping, yet the movement of one woidd 
disturb the other, which would raise its head in a stupid manner, for a few moments, grant once or twice, and before 
lying down to sleep again, it would strike the slumbering form of its nearest companion with its tusks, causing 
that animal to rouse up iu turn for a few moments also, grunt, and pass the blow on to the next, lying down iu the 
same manner. Thus the word was transferred, as it were, constantly and unceasingly around, always keeping some 
one or two aroused, which consequently were more alert than the rest. 

Helplessness on land. — In moving on laud they do not seem to have any physical power in the hind limbs ; 
these are usually dragged and twitched up behind, or feebly flattened out at right angles to the body; terrestrial 
progression is slowly and tediously made by a dragging succession of short steps forward ou the fore-feet; but, if 
the alarm is given, it is astonishing to note the contrast which they present in their method of getting back to 
sea; they fairly roll and hustle themselves over and into the waves. 

How long they remain out from the water, in this country, I am unable to say ; but, stored up as they are with 
such an enormous supply of surplus fat, dull and sluggish in temperament, I should think that they could sustain 
a fasting period equal to that of. the Otariidw, if not superior to them in endurance. 

These adult males before me looked very much larger than I expected to find the walrus, t and it was fortunate 

*I have seen no description of this Pacific walrus which is as good as is the first notice of it ever made to English readers, by Captain 
Cook, iu his Last Voyage; it is, as far as ir goes, precisely iu accordance with my views of the same animal, nearly a century later, viz, 
July, 1872. He said: "They lie in herds of many hundreds upon the iee, huddling one over the other like swine, and roar or bay very loud, 
so that in the night, or in foggy weather, they gave us not iee of the vicinity of the ice before we could see it. We never found the whole 
herd asleep; some being always on the watch. These, on the approach of the boat, would wake those next to them, and the alarm being 
thus gradually communicated, the whole herd would be awake presently. But they were seldom in a hurry to get away till after they had 
once been fired at, when they would tumble one over the other into the sea in the utmost contusion, and if we did not at the first discharge 
kill those we tired at, we generally lost them, though mortally wounded. They did not appear to be that dangerous animal some authors 
have described, not even when attacked. They are rather more so to appearance than in reality. Vast numbers of them would follow, 
and some come close up to the boats ; but the flash of a musket in the pan, or even the bare pointing of one at them, would send them down 
in an instant. The female will defend the young one to the very last, and at the expense of her own life, whether iu the water or upon 
the ice. Nor will the young one quit the dam though she be dead; so that, if you kill one you are sure of the other. The dam, when iu 
the water, holds the young one between her fore-fins." [Cook's (1778) Voyages to the raeific Ocean, etc., vol. ii, p. 458. Loudon, 1785.] 

I do not wish to appear iu the light of desiring to detract one iota from that credit of accurate description which so justly belongs 
to Cook; but he himself did not indicate that hi' thought the Pacific walrus a distinct species from its Atlantic congener; his figure of the 
Bering sea 1 osmanis is entirely grotesque; a human face with beard, a thin neck and immensely inflated posteriors, and fore-flippers 
divided up into distinct fingers, make a creature as totally unlike Odoba'nus obesus as need be ; yet, naturalists have gravely spoken of it 
as ••excellent"! Had Captain Cook possessed the same explicit and graphic power of description in his pencil that characterizes his pen, 
I know full well that this caricature above referred to [Cook's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, etc., 177G-1780, vol. ii, pi. lii] would never 
have appeared. 

The pinnipeds are, perhaps, of all anima's, the most difficult subjects that the artist can find to reproduce from life; there are no 
angles or elbows to seize hold of— the lines of body and limbs are all rounded, free and flowing; yet the very fleshiest examples never 
have that bloated, wind-distended look which most of the figures published give them. One must first become familiarized with the restless, 
varying attitudes of these creatures, by extended personal contact and observation, ere he can satisfy himself with the result of his 
drawings, no matter how expert he may be in rapid and artistic delineation. Life-studies, by artists, of the young of the Atlantic walrus 
have' been made in several instances, but of the mature animal, there is nothing extant of that character. 

t'fhe most satisfactory result that I can obtain from a careful study of what is on record as to the length of the adult 6 Atlantic 
walrus is a mean of IU feet 7 inches; while my observations on Walrus island give the Bering sea 6 adult walrus an average of 11 feet ; 
the only two examples which I measured were both over this figure, viz, 11 feet 9 inches, and 12 feet 7 inches, from tip of muzzle to the 
skinuy nodule or excrescence, scientifically known as the tail; but they were striking exceptions in superior size to all the others in the 
large herd of old males before my eyes at the time, and were singled out for shooting ou that score. I fully realize this, because in July, 



9G THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

for the accuracy and good sense of these notes now publisher , that one of the natives kindly volunteered to shoot 
any of the hulls, of which I might select, after I should have finished my sketching and writing. I therefore, when 
my drawings were completed, selected the largest animal in the group; and, promptly at my signal, a rifle ball 
crashed iuto the skull at the only place where it could enter, just on the line of the eye and the ear, midway 
between them. 

Gkeat size of the -walrus.— This animal, thus slain, certainly was the largest one of the entire herd, and 
the following measurements and notes can, therefore, be relied upon: it measured 12 feet 7 inches from its bluff 
nostrils to the tip of its excessively abbreviated tail, which was not more than 2| or 3 inches long; it had the 
surprising girth of 11 feet. The immense mass of blubber on the shoulders and around the neck made the head 
look strangely small in proportion, and the posteriors decidedly attenuated; indeed, the whole weight of the 
animal was bound up in its girth anteriorly; it was a physical impossibility for me to weigh this brute, and I 
therefore can do nothing but make a guess, having this fact to guide me : that the head cut directly off at the 
junction with the spine, or the occipital or atlas joint, weighed 80 pounds; that the skin, which I carefully removed 
with the aid of these natives, with the head, weighed 570 pounds. Deducting the head, and excluding the flippers, 
I think it is safe to say that the skin itself would not weigh less than 350 pounds, and the animal could not weigh 
much less than a ton — from 2,000 to 2,200 pounds. 

Characters or head. — The head has a decided flattened appearance, for the nostrils, eyes, and ear-spots 
seem to be placed nearly on top of the cranium ; the nasal apertures are literally so, opening directly over the 
muzzle ; they are oval, and closed parallel with the longitudinal axis of the skull, and when dilated are about an 
inch in their greatest diameter. 

The tusks, or canines, are set firmly under the nostril-apertures in deep, massive, bony pockets, giving that 
strange, broad, square-cut front of the muzzle, so characteristic to the physiognomy. 

The upper lips of the walrus of Bering sea are exceedingly thick and gristly, and the bluff, square muzzle is 
studded, in regular rows and intervals, with a hundred or so short, stubby, gray-white bristles, varying in length 
from one half to three inches. There are a few very short and much softer bristles set, also, on the fairly hidden 
chin of the lower jaw, which closes up under the projeetiug snout and muzzle, and is nearly concealed by the 
enormous tushes, when laterally viewed. 

Peculiarities of the eyes. — The eyes are small, but prominent; placed nearly on top of the head, and 
protruding from their sockets, bulge like those of the lobster, The iris and pupil of this eye is less than one-fourth 
of the exposed surface ; the sclerotic coat swells out from under the lids when they are opened, and is of a dirty, 
mottled, coffee-yellow and brown, with an occasional admixture of white; the iris itself is light brown, with dark 
brown rays and spots. I noticed that whenever the animal roused itself, instead of turning its head, it rolled its eyes 
about, seldom moving the cranium more than to elevate it. The eyes seem to move, rotating in every direction when 
the creature is startled, giving the face of this monster a very extraordinary attraction, especially when studied by 
an artist. The expression is just indescribable. The range of sight enjoyed by the walrus out of water, I can 
testify, is not well developed ; for, after throwing small chips of rock down upon the walruses near me, several of 
them not being ten feet distant, and causing them only to stupidly stare and give vent to low grunts of astonishment, 
I then rose gently and silently to my feet, standing boldly up before them ; but then, even, I was not noticed, though 
their eyes rolled all over from above to under me. Had I, however, made a little noise, or had I been standing as 
far as 1,000 yards away from them to the windward, they would have taken the alarm instantly and tumbled off 
into the sea like so many hustled wool-sacks ; for their sense of smell is of the keen, keenest. 

Acute hearing. — The ears of the walrus, or rather the auricles to the ears, are on the same lateral line at the 
top of the head with the nostrils and eyes, the latter being just midway between. The pavilion, or auricle, is a mere 
fleshy wrinkle or fold, not at all raised or developed; and, from what I could see of the meatus extemus, it was very 
narrow and small; still, the natives assured me that the Otariidw had no better organs of hearing than "Morsjee". 

Loose setting of the tusks.— The head of the male walrus, to which I have alluded, and from which I 
afterward removed the skin, was 18 inches long between the nostrils and the post-occipital region; and, although 
the enormous tusks seemed to be so firmly planted in their osseous sockets, judge of my astonishment when one of 
the younger natives flippantly struck a tusk with a wooden club quite smartly, and then easily jerked the tooth 
forth. I had frequently observed that it was difficult to keep the teeth from rattling out of their alveoli in any of 
the best skulls I had gathered of the fur-seals and sea-lions ; especially difficult in the case of the latter. But 
again, on this interesting subject of dentition, it is best that I refer to Dr. Allen. Kepetition of his admirable 
diagnosis is unnecessary here. 

Unusual thickness of the skin.— The thickness of the hide* of the walrus is, after all, in my opinion, its 

1874, when I revisited Walrus island, I caused a younger male, and one tolerably well Laired over with a very dark brown and short coat, 
to be shot; when measured it gave a length of only 10 feet 9 inches, and would not weigh, in my best estimation, more than 1,200 to 1,500 
pounds. It was, however, fully matured. Thus the "greater size" which I recognized in 1872, means an increased length of five or six 
inches to the Alaska form, with a relative greater avoirdupois. The complete and uniform unhairing of the old Alaskan male Vdobanim, 
is another very characteristic feature in different expression from Atlantic herds. 

* While savage man has utilized the tough hide of Eosmarus and Obcsiis, the skin was also used by the Russians* themselves to cover 
the packages of furs seut from Sitka to Kiachta, China; the skin was there stripped and again sewed anew over the i-ho ts of tea that were 




3 0) 
4) SS> 



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G a) 



£5 



3 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 97 

most anomalous feature. I remember well how surprised I was when I followed the iueision of the broad-axe nsed 
in beheading the specimen shot for my benefit, to find that the skin over the shoulders and around the throat and 
chest was three inches thick — a puify, spongy epidermis, outward hateful to the Bight, and inwardly resting upon 
the slightly acrid fat or blubber so characteristic of this animal. Nowhere is this hide, upon the thinnest point of 
measurement, less than half an inch thick. It feeds exclusively upon shellfish (Lamcllibranehiuta), or clams 
principally, and also upon the bulbous roots and tender stalks of certain marine plants and grasses which grow 
in great abundance over the bottoms of broad, shallow lagoons and bays of the main Alaskan coast. I took from 
the paunch of the walrus above mentioned, more than a bushel of crushed clams in their shells, all of which that 
animal had evidently just swallowed, for digestion had scarcely commenced. Many of those clams in that stomach, 
large as my clenched hands, were not even broken; and it is in digging this shellfish food that the services 
rendered by the enormous tusks become apparent.* 

Cowardice of the walrus of Bering sea. — It may not accord with the singular tales told, on the 
Atlantic side, about the uses of these gleaming ivory teeth, so famous and conspicuous; but I believe that the 
Alaskan walrus employs them solely in the labor of digging clams and rooting bulbs from those muddy oozes and 
sand-bars in the estuary waters peculiar to his geographical distribution. Certainly, it is difficult for me to 
reconcile the idea of such uncouth, timid brutes, as were those spread before me on Walrus islet, with any of the 
strange chapters written as to the ferocity and devilish courage of the Greenland morse. These animals were 
exceeding cowardly; abjectly so. It is with the greatest difficulty that the natives, when a herd of walruses 
are surprised, can get a second shot at them; so far from clustering attacks around their boats, it is the very 
reverse; aud the hunter's only solicitude is which way to travel in order that he may come up with the fleeing 
animals as they rise to breathe. Again, I visited Walrus islet in 1S74. accompanied by Lieutenant Maynard, United 
States navy, and the captain of the revenue-cutter Belianee. We rowed from the ship directly toward the islet, to 
a point where we saw the accustomed and expected sight of walrus lying thereon. The wind was fair for us and we 
came up almost to within a boat's oar distance of the dozing, phlegmatic herd. One was singled out, and 
Captain Baker shot it — his first walrus ; the whole herd, as usual, hustled with terrible energy into the water, and 
all around our boat, for we had not landed, and they did not rise about or near us to give one snort of defiance, 
or to give us the faintest suggestion of any disposition to attack us, but they disappeared unpleasantly soon — too 
quickly. 

Absence of females ox Walrus island. — As I have said before, there are no females on this 
island, and I can therefore say nothing about them: I regret it exceedingly. On questioning the natives, as 
we returned, they told me that the walrus of Bering sea was monogamous; and that the difference between the 
sexes in size, color, and shape is inconsiderable ; or, in other words, that until the males are old, the young males 
and the females of all ages are not remarkably distinct, and would not be at all if it were not for the teeth ; they 
said that the female brings forth her young, a single calf, in June, usually, on the ice-floes in the Arctic ocean, 
above Bering straits, between point Barrow aud cape Seartze Katuniin; that this calf resembles the parent in 
general proportions and color when it is hardly over six weeks old, but that the tusks (which give it its most 
distinguishing expression) are not visible until the second year of its life; that the walrus mother is strongly 
attached to her offspring,! and nurses it later through the season in the sea; that the walrus sleeps profoundly iu 

received in exchange for these furs thus enveloped, and which were carried hence to Moscow. Here the soundest portions of the hide 
remaining on the boxes were finally cut up and stamped into " kopecks" and a variety of small change, in time, to revisit its native seas ; 
used as a circulating medium, for value received, throughout all Alaska where the Russians held power. A leather currency was long 
known to thai country, and old Philip Volkov, of St. Paul, told me that he never saw silver or gold coin uged on the seal-islands until our 
people brought it in 1868. These walrus parchment roubles were worth much less than their face value — sometimes only one-third. Tho 
Russians also made harness out of walrus leather. As long as tin- weather remained cold and dry the wear of this material was highly 
satisfactory, but woe to the "kibitscha" if caught out in a rain storm! The walrus harness then stretches like india-rubber, and tho 
hoi sts fairly leave the vehicle far behind, sticking in the road, though the traces are unbroken. 

*It is, and always will be, a source of sincere regret to me and my friends, that I did not bodily preserve this huge paunch and its 
contents. It would have filled a half barrel very snugly, and then its mass of freshly swallowed clams (Mya truneata), filmy streaks of 
macerated kelp, and fragments of crustaceans, conld have been carefully examined during a week of leisure at the Smithsonian Institution. 
Il was. however, ripped open so quickly by one of the Aleuts, who kicked the contents out, that I hardly knew what had been done, ere tho 
strong-smelling subject was directly under my nose. The natives then were anxious that I should hurry through with my sketches, 
measurements, etc., so that they might the sooner push off their egg-laden bidarrah and cross back to the main island, before the fogs 
would settle over our homeward track, or the rapidly rising wind shift to the northward and imperil our passage. Weighty reasons, t hese, 
which so fully impressed me, that this unique stomach of a canih-ora was overlooked and left behind ; hence, with the exception of curiously 
turning over the clams (especially those oncrnshed specimens), which formed the great bulk of its contents, I have no memoranda or even 
distinct recollection of the other materials that were incorporated. The olivaceous green color of its soft, pasty excrement must be derived 
from eating chlorosperma' aud divers branches of algoid growth. 

tThat the sea-lion and the fur-seal should be so apathetic when danger to their young arises, and that the clnmsy, timid walrus 
fights tor their protection to the death, under the same circumstances, is somewhat strange. According to all reports which I can 
gather from reputable authority, notably Captain Cook's brief, yet explicit, account, the walrus never deserts its young in that manner, 
hitherto described, so characteristic of the Olariidw of Bering sea ; this odd contrast in behavior is worthy of further attention, as far as 



98 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the water, floating almost vertically, with barely more than the nostrils above water, and can be easily approached 
if care is taken as to the wind, so as to spear it or shove a lance into its bowels ; that the bidls do not light as 
savagely as the fur-seal or the sea-lion; that the blunted tusks of these combatants seldom do more than bruise 
their thick hides ; that they can remain under water nearly an hour, or about twice as long as the seals ; and 
that they sink like so many stones, immediately after being shot at sea.* 

First recoud op the occurrence of females. — The reason why this band of males, and many of them 
old ones, should be here to the exclusion of females throughout the year, is not plain. The natives assured me that 
walrus females, or their young, never have been seen around the shores of these islands; but I have trustworthy 
advices from the village of St. Paul, at the date of this publication, declaring the fact of the capture of a female 
on Walrus islet last fall, the first one ever recorded. 

Geographical distribution of the walrus of Alaska. — The walrus has, however, a very wide range 
of distribution in Alaska, though not near so great as in prehistoric times. t They abound to the eastward and 
southeastward of St. Paul, over in Bristol bay, where great numbers congregate on the sand-bars and flats, now 
flooded, now bared by the rising and ebbing of the tide. They are hunted here to a considerable extent for their 
ivory; no walrus are found south of the Aleutian islands; still, not more than forty -five or fifty years ago, small 
gatherings of these animals were killed here and there on the islands between Kadiak and Oouimak pass; the 
greatest aggregate of them, south of Bering straits, will always be found in the estuaries of Bristol bay and on the 
north side of the peninsula. 

Prehistoric range of the walrus. — Geologists find the record of the great ice period well filled up by 
the range of the walrus, then, as far down on the Atlantic coast as the littoral margins of South and North 
Carolina; and its fossil remains are common in the diluvial deposits of England and France, while the phosphate 
beds of New Jersey are exceedingly rich in old walrus bones; but, within historic times, there is no evidence that 
points to the existence of the walrus on the New England coast. During the last half of the sixteenth century they 
are known to have frequented the southern confines of Nova Scotia. That hardy navigator, James Cartier, tells 
us, in his quaint vernacular, that in May, 1534, he met at the island of "Eamea" (probably Sable island), sporting 
in the sea, "very greate beastes, as greate as oxen, which have two greate teeth in their mouths like unto Elephant's 
teeth, & live also in the Sea. We saw them sleeping on the banke of the water; wee, thinking to take it, went 
with our boates, but so soon as he heard us he caste himselfe into the sea". Another old salt, "Thomas James, of 
Bristoll," speaking of the same subject shortly after, says, "the fish cometh on banke -(to do their kind) in April, 
May, and June, by numbers of thousands, which fish is very big, and hath two great teeth ; and the skin of them 
is like Beeffes leather; and they will not away from their yong ones. The youg ones are as good meat as Veale. 
And with the bellies of five of the saide fishes they make a hogshead of Traine, which Traine is very sweet, which, 

the walrus is concerned. There were no females or young among the herds of Rosmarus which I observed at Walrus island ; hence, I am 
unable myself to give any facts based upon life-studies. 

The reported affection and devotion of the mother walrus seems only natural, being, as it is, the rule throughout all the higher 
grades of mammalia; while this attitude of the sea-lion and fur-seal is decidedly opposed to it; and, were it not that it was so plainly 
presented in a thousand and one cases to my senses, I should have seriously doubted its correctness. Still, the best authority that I can 
recognize on the habits of the Phocidm, Kumlein, says that the hair-seals all display the same indifference which I portray in this respect 
as characteristic of the fur-seal and sea-lion. — [Kumlein: Contributions to the Natural History of Arctic America. Hull. U. S. National 
Museum: Washington, p. 59, 1879.] 

* I personally made no experiments tonching the peculiarity of sinking immediately after being shot ; of course, on reflection, it 
will appear to any mind that all seals, no matter how fat or how lean, would sink instantly out of sight, if not killed at the stroke of the 
bullet ; even if mortally wounded, the great involuntary impulse of brain and muscle would be to dive and speed away ; for all 
swimming is submarine when the pinnipeds desire to travel. 

Touching this mooted question, I had an opportunity when in Port Townsend, during 1874, to ask a man who had served as a 
partner in a fur-sealing schooner off the straits of Fuca. He told me that unless the seal was instantly killed by the passage of the rifle 
bullet through its brain, it was never secured, and would sink before they could reach the bubbling wake of its disappearance ; if, however 
the aim of the marksman had been correct, then the body was invariably taken within five to ten minutes after the shootiug. Only one 
man did the shooting; all the rest of the crew, 10 to 12 white men and Indians, manned canoes and boats which were promptly 
dispatched from the schooner, after each report, in the direction' of the shooting. How long one of the bodies of these "clean "killed seals 
would float, he did not know ; the practice always was to get it as quickly as possible, fearing that the bearings of its position, when shot 
from the schooner, might bo confused or lost ; he also affirmed that, in his opinion, there were not a dozen men on the whole northwest 
coast who were good enough with a rifle, and expert at distance calculation, to shoot fur-seals successfully from the deck of a vessel on the 
ocean. The Indians of Cape Flattery get most of the pelagic fur-seals by cautiously approaching from the leeward when they are asleep, 
and throwing line darts or harpoons into them before they awaken. 

1 1 have been frequently questioned whether, in my opinion, it was more than a short space of time ere the walrus was exterminated 
or not, since the whalers had begun to hunt them in Bering sea and the Arctx ocean. To this I frankly make answer, that I do not know 
enough of the subject to give correct judgment. The walrus spend most of their time in waters that are within reach of these skillful 
and hardy navigators ; and if they (the walrus) are of sufficient value to the whaler, he can, and undoubtedly will, make a business of 
killing them, and work the same sad result that he has brought about with the mighty schools of cetacea, which once whistled and bared 
their backs throughout the now deserted waters of Bering sea in perfect peace and seclusion prior to 1842. The returns of the old Russian 
America Company show that an annual average of 10,000 walrus have been slain by the Eskimo since 1799 up to 1867. There are a great 
many left yet. But unless the oil of Rosmarus becomes very precious, commercially, I think the shoal waters of Bristol bay and Kuskokvim 
mouth, together with the eccentric tides thereof, will preserve it indefinitely. Forty years ago, when the North Pacific was the rendezvous of 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 99 

if it -will make sope, the Bang of Spaine may burne some of Lis Olive trees." (!) This spice of Yankee enterprise in 
"sope", evidently, did not come to a .successful head.* 

The WALRUS "bidarrah". — The finest bidarrah skill-boats of transportation that I have seen in this country, 
were those of the St. Lawrence natives; these were made out of dressed walrus hides, shaved and pared down by 
them to the requisite thickness, so that when they were sewed with sinews to the wooden whalebone-lashed frames 
of these boats, they dried into a pale, greenish- white, prior to oding; and were even then almost translucent, tough 
and strong. 

Uses of walrus hides. — Until I saw the bidarrahs of the St. Lawrence natives in 1874, I was more 
or less inclined to believe that the tough, thick, and spongy hide of the walrus would be too refractory in 
dressing for use in covering such light frames, especially those of the bidarka; but the manifest excellence and 
seaworthiness of these Eskimo boats satisfied me that I was mistaken. I saw, however, abundant evidence of the 
much greater labor required in tanning or paring down the thick cuticle to that thin, tough transparency so marked 
ou their bidarrahs: for the pelt of the hair seal, or sea-lion, does not require any more attention when applied to 
this service than simply uuhairing it ; this is done by first sweating the "loughtak'' in piles, then rudely, but rapidly, 
scraping, with blunt knives or stone lk-users, the hair off in large, patches at .every stroke: the skin is then air dried, 
being stretched on a stout frame, where, in the lapse of a few weeks, it becomes as rigid as a board. When required 
for use thereafter, it is soaked in water until soft or "green" again, then it is sewed with sinews, while in this fresh 
condition, tightly over the slight wooden skeleton of the bidarka or the heavier frame of the bidarrah. In this 
manner the skin-boats and lighters at the islands are covered ; then they are air-dried thoroughly before oiling, 
which is done when the skin has become well indurated, so as to bind the ribs and keel as with au iron plating; 
the thick, unrefined seal-oil keeps the water out for twelve to twenty hours, according to the character of the hides; 
when, however, the skin-covering begins to "bag in" between the ribs of the frame, then it is necessary to haul the 
bidarrah out and air-dry it again, and re-oiling. If attended to thoroughly and constantly, those skin-covered boats 
are the best species of lighter which can be used at these islands, for they will stand more thumping and pounding 
on the rocks and alongside ship than all wooden, or even corrugated iron lighters could endure, and remain seaworthy. 

MANURE of dressing WALRUS a>d sea-lion hides. — I noticed that the St. Lawrence Eskimo pared the 
walrus hide down from the outer surface or hairy side; while at St. Paul, when it became necessary to reduce the 
thickness of a sea-lion's skin at spots around the neck and shoulders, the paring was done on the fleshy side. 
Very little thinning, however, was needed in the case of sea-lion "loughtak v .t 

Gastronomic qualities of walrus meat. — The flavor of the raw, rank mollusca, upon which it feeds 
seems to permeate the fiber of the flesh, making it very offensive to the civilized palate; but the Eskimos, who do 

the greatest whaling fleet that ever floated, those vessels could not. nor can they now, approach nearer than sixty or even eighty miles of 
the muddy shoals, sands, and bars upon which the walrus rest there; scattered in herds of a dozen or so in numbers up to bodies of 
thousands; living in lethargic peace, and almost unmolested, except in several small districts which are carefully hunted over by the 
natives of Oogashik for oil and ivory. I have bees credibly informed that they also breed in Bristol hay, and along the coast as far north 
as Cape Avinova, during some BeaSOns of exceptional rigor in the Arctic. 

*l depart from the Pacific walrus, lor a moment, in thus speaking of its Atlantic brother with reference to the testimony of the rocks 
as to its limit of southern range- north of tin- equator; for the thought of herds of walrus floating down on immense frigid floes over tho 
present low lands of Virginia and North Carolina, and of Anvers and near Paris, France, is an interesting one, relative to the features of 
the great ice age; down 1 hey came, that is certain. Van Benedcn and Leidy have recently figured their aged bones as tiny arc- silicified 
or east in the marls of those southern coasts and interiors. [See Leidy, Trans. Am. Phil. 8oe., xi, 1860, Philadelphia. Van Beneden: Des 
<iV 0*8. Foss. des Envinis d' Anvers; Annates Mus. A' Hist. Nat. de Belgiqye, 1877, tome i, pp. 40—11.] No such hones have as yet been founp 
on the northwest coast, or in Alaska. 

+ When I stepped, for the first time, into the baidar of St. Paul island, and went ashore, from the "Alexander", over a heavy sea) 
safely to the lower bight of Lukannon bay, my sensations were of emphatic distrust; the partially water-softened skin-covering would 
putf up between the wooden ribs, and then draw back, as tin- waves rose and fell, so much like an unstable support above the cold green 
water below. That I frankly expressed my surprise at such an outlandish craft. My thoughts quickly turned to a higher appreciation of 
those hardy navigators who used these vessels in circumpolar seas years ago, and the Russians, who, more recently, employed bidarrahs 
chiefly to explore Alaskan and Kaintchatkan terra incognita. There is an old poem in Avitvs, written by a Roman as early as 445 A. D. ; it 
describes the ravages of Saxon pirates along the southern coasts of Britain, who used just such vessels as is this bidarrah of St. Paul. 

Quin et armoricus piratim Saxona tractus 
Spirabat, cui pelle falnm fulcare Britannum 
Ludus, et assuto glaucum mare lindere lemho. 

These boats were probably covered with either horse or hull's hides. When used in England they were known as coracles; in Ireland 
they were styled ciirachs; Pliny tells us that Ca-sar moved his army in Britain over lakes and rivers in such boats. Even the Greeks used 
them, terming them karabia; and. the Russian word of koraW, or "ship", is derived from it. King Alfred, in 870-872, tells us that tho 
Finns made sad havoc among the Swedish settlements ou the numerous "meres" (lakes) in the moors of their country, by "carrying their 
ships (baidars) overland in the- meres whence they make depredations on the Northmen; their ships are small and very light". 

All air-dried seal pelts, no matter whether hair- or fur-seal, sea- lion or walrus hides, are called by the Aleutians, and also by the 
Kamtehadales, "loughtak" or "lotftak". YVhcu the natives of Kamtchatka told Steller in l740-'42. that the large hair-seal, Phocaharbata, 
was known to them as " loughtak", they evidently did not give him their specific name for the seal: but rather expressed their sense of ivs 
large skin, which was so highly prized by them as to be " the loughtak" of all other loughtak in those waters of their country. Er'ujnallius 
harbatits has never been seen around or on these islands of the Pribylov group, hut every air-dried fur-seal, or sea-lion skiu, there, is called 
"loughtak" by the people. 



100 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

not have the luxurious spread of sea-lion steak aud fur-seal hams, regard it as highly aud feed upon it as steadily 
as we do our own best corn-fed beef. Iudeed, the walrus to the Eskimo answers just as the cocoa-palm does to 
the South Sea islander ; it feeds him, it clothes him, it heats and illuminates his "igloo"; aud it arms him for 'he 
chase, while he builds his summer shelter and rides upon the sea by virtue of its hide. Naturally, however, ir is not 
much account to the seal-hunters on the Pribylov islands ; they still find, by stirring- up the sand-dunes and digging 
about them at Northeast point, all the ivory that they require for their domestic use on the islands, nothing else 
about the walrus being of the slightest economic value to them. Some authorities have spoken well of walrus 
meat as an article of diet; either they had that sauce for it born of inordinate hunger, or else the cooks deceived 
them. Starving explorers in the arctic regions could relish it — they would thankfully and gladly eat anything 
that was juicy, and sustained life, with zest and gastronomic fervor. The Eskimo naturally like it; it is a 
necessity to their existence, and thus a relish for it is acquired. I can readily understand, by personal experience, 
how a great many, perhaps a majority of our own people, could speak well, were they north, of seal meat, of whale 
"rind", aud of polar bear steaks, but I know that a mouthful of fresh or "cured" walrus flesh would make their 
"gorges rise". The St. Paul natives refuse to touch it as an article of diet in any shape or manner. I saw them 
removing the enormous testicles of one of the old bull walrus which was shot, for my purposes, on Walrus islai d; 
they told me that they did so in obedience to the wish of the widow doctress of the village, Maria Seedova, who 
desired a pair for her incantations. 

Curiosity, miugled with a desire to really understand, alone tempted me to taste the walrus meat which was 
placed before me at Poonook, on St. Lawrence island; and candor compels me to say that it was worse than the old 
beaver's tail which I had been victimized with in British Columbia; worse than the tough brown-bear steak of Bristol 
bay — iu fact, it is the worst of all fresh flesh of which I know; it has a strong flavor of an indefinite acrid nature, 
which turned my palate and my stomach instantaneously and simultaneously, while the surprised natives stared 
in bewildered silence at their astonished and disgusted guest. They, however, greedily put chunks, two inches 
square and even larger, of this flesh aud blubber iuto their mouths as rapidly as the storage room there would 
permit; and, with what grimy gusto ! the corners of their large lips dripping with the fatness of their feeding. How 
little they thought then, that in a few short seasons they would die of starvation sittiug in these same igloos — their 
caches empty and nothing but endless fields of barren ice where the life-giving sea should be. The winter of 1879-'80 
was one of exceptional rigor in the Arctic, although in the United States it was unusually mild and open. The ice 
closed iu solid around St. Lawrence island — so firm and unshaken by the giant leverage of wind and tide, that the 
walrus were driven far to the southward and eastward beyond the reach of the unhappy inhabitants of that island, 
who, thus unexpectedly deprived of their mainstay and support, seem to have miserably starved to death, with the 
exception of one small village on the north shore. The residents of the Poonook, Poogovellyak, and Kagallegak 
settlements perished, to a soul, from hunger; nearly three hundred men, women, and children. I recall the visit 
which I made to these settlements, in August, 1874, with sadness, in this unfortunate connection, because they 
impressed me with their manifest superiority over the savages of the northwest coast. They seemed, then, to 
be living, during nine months of the year, almost wholly upon the flesh and oil of the walrus. Clean limbed, 
bright eyed, and jovial, they profoundly impressed me with their happy reliance and subsistence upon the walrus 
herds of Bering sea. I could not help remarking then, that these people had neyer been subjected to the 
temptations and subsequent sorrow of putting their trust in princes; hence, their independence and good heart. 
But now it appears that it wdl-not do to put your trust in walrus, either. 

I know that it is said by Parry, by Hall, and lately by others, that the flesh of the Atlantic walrus is palatable; 
perhaps the nature of food-supply is the cause. We all recognize the wide difference iu pork from hogs fed on corn 
and those fed on beech mast and oak acorns, and those which have lived upon the offal of the slaughtering houses 
or have gathered the decayed castings of the sea shore ; the walrus of Bering sea lives upon that which does not 
give pleasant flavor to its flesh. 

Imperfection of walrus ivory. — Touching the ivory, I was struck, in looking over the tusks as they protruded 
from the live animals' mouths, by the fact that only rare examples, of perfect teeth could be found; they were 
broken off irregularly, some quite close to the socket, hardly a single animal having a sound and uniform pair of 
tusks. Most of the walrus ivory taken is of very poor quality; it has a deep core, or yellow, suspended pith, and 
is frequently so cracked, where the ivory is the whitest and the firmest, as to be of mere nominal value; but 
exceptional teeth now and then occur, of prodigious size and superior texture ; these are carefully treasured and 
sold to great advantage. 

The antiquity of walrus hunting. — Generally, when we look for the earliest records of this or that 
action or occupation, we are treated to a vast store of indeterminate material, upon which any theory or conjecture 
may be raised. But, touching the case of the hunting of the fur-seal and the walrus, in northern waters, we 
have exact data as to records of the earliest chase and capture of these animals by our own people. The 
history of walrus hunting comes down to us from rare old antiquity, in this way: Shortly after 868 A. D., King 
Alfred, of England, gave a translation of the Spanish Ormestra, or "Di miserere mundi," of PaulOrosius, iu his 
mother tongue, the Anglo-Saxon; iuto this complete aud only geographical review of the earth's form, as known at 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 101 

that time, he interwove the relations of Othere and the Dane Wulfstan. The former was a great man from Norway ; 
he undertook a voyage of discovery beyond the north cape of his native land, and to the then unknown eastward 
as tar as our modern Finland, which he indicated as the "country of the Beormas". He shaped his course to this 
"region, "on account of the horse whales, inasmuch as they have very good bone in their teeth"; also, "this sort of 
whale is much less than the other kinds, it being not larger commonly than seven ells"; aud states further that he, 
Othere, "had killed fifty-six in two days". 

Deschnev the first to see the walrus of Bering sea. — The earliest personal record made of the walrus 
of Bering sea, was the discovery of these animals by Simeon Deschnev, that Cossack who, first of all civilized men, 
sailed through Bering straits, October, 1G4S ; aud who made use of their ivory, en voyage, in repairing his rude 
shallop. He also, in 1651, discovered extensive sand shoals north of the Anadyr mouth, upon which large herds of 
walrus were resting. But in this connection it is proper to say, that the walrus of Bering-sea is the same animal 
of which Isaiah Ignatiev learned in 1040, wheu he led a party of Russian fur-hunters east of the mouth of the 
Kolyma as far as Tchaun bay. He did not see it, however, aud traded with the Tschukchies for the teeth in 
question. His report of a nation rich in walrus ivory far to the eastward along the shores of the Polar ocean, is 
what stimulated the remarkable voyage of Deschnev, above referred to, as well as many others who were not 
so successful,* viz: Staduchin, Alexiev, Ankudinov, Buldakov, all iu 1047-1049. 

Boueal range of the walrus of Bering sea. — The range of the Bering sea walrus now appears to be 
restricted in the Arctic ocean to an extreme westward at Cape Chelagskoi, on the Siberian coast, and an extreme 
cast ward between Point Barrow and the region of Point Beechey, on the Alaskan shore. It is, however, substantially 
confined between Koliutchin bay, Siberia, and Point Barrow, Alaska. As far as its distribution in polar waters is 
concerned, aud how far to the north it travels from these coasts of the two continents, I am unable to present any well 
authenticated data illustrative of the subject; the shores of Wrangell Land were found this year (1881) iu possession 
of walrus herds. 

The Japanese seem to have known of the walrus of Bering sea, but evidently have not observed it — at least, I 
think so, from the testimony of their spirited drawings of this animal. They represent it with the body, the neck, 
and the limbs of a horse, running on camel-like feet, with an equine head, from the upper jaw of which two 
enormous tusks depend; it is made to gallop rather as a land- than a sea-horse. The hair-seals are very much 
better delineated by both Chinese and Japanese artists; and, further, no suggestion, by such means, has been 
made of the fur-seal by them. 

The chief demand for walrus ivory first came, and still comes, from those patient, skillful Mongolian hand- 
carvers, who work the teeth up iuto a variety of exceedingly attractive articles, both useful and fanciful. Wrangell 
says that the Tschukchies " make long, narrow drinking vessels from the teeth", which require much time to hollow 
out; they are frequently sold to the Reindeer Tschukchies, who convey them to the Russians. 

The walrus ivory carving of the Alaskan Mahlemoots, at Oogashik and Nushagak, in particular, is remarkably 
well executed ; clever and even beautiful imitations of our watch chains, guards, table, and pocket cutlery, rings, 
bracelets, aud necklace jewelry are made by them. They have earned the just reputation of being " the sculptors of 
the north". 

Parry's history of the Atlantic walrus. — In closing here this brief biography of the walrus of Bering 
sea, I desire to say that the graphic and detailed account given by Sir Edward Parry, iu the narrative of his third 
voyage to the north pole, of the manner in which the Eskimo hunt and use the walrus of Prince Regent inlet 
(Oilobccnus rosmarus), fitly expresses my own observations made at St. Lawrence island, among the Tschukchie 
Eskimo there; hence, I shall not embody them in type; my illustrations will supply the vacancy which his accurate 
and lengthy description alone allows t I call attention to this economic history of the Atlantic walrus by Parry, 
for, in my opinion, it is written with great fidelity. 

* Allen erroneously gives the credit (on p. 172, Hist, of N. A. Pinnipeds) of first discovery and report of the walrus ivory of Bering 
sen to "the Cossak adventurer staduchin, who found (about 1645 to 1618) its tnsks on the Tschukchie coast, near the mouth of the 
Kolyma river. A century later, Deschnev also found large quantities of walrus teeth on the sand-bars at the mouth of the Anadyr". 
Michael Staduchin did not sail from the Kolyma mouth until 1649. He ventured at that time as far east probably as Cape Chelagskoi; 
he was obliged to return then, after getting a load of walrus teeth from the Tschukchies, but from whom he could get no meat or 
provision of any kind; he saw no more than his predecessor, Ignatiev, did, three years prior; in other words, he did not then see the 
walrus itself. 

tAs the natives of the Pribylov islands do not hunt the walrus, I have, in my studies of this animal, introduced the figures, method, 
and costumes of the St. Lawrence Eskimo, which faithfully typify the entire Alaskan people, who live largely upon the flesh of this animal. 
I do so, not only on account of its being wholly germane to the subject of my discussion in this monograph, but more so, as it is the first 
{notorial presentation of the ideas involved ever given. 



102 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

H. THE REPRODUCTION OF THE FUR-SEAL, SEA-LION, AND WALRUS. 

19. THE REPRODUCTION" OF THE FUR-SEAL.* 

Object op this discussion. — By treating this subject at length, my object is to fix attention upon several 
points connected with the reproduction of the fur-seal which have vital importance to its relation with, and 
residence upon, the breeding-grounds of these islands under discussion. In the first place, naturalists generally 
have taken notice of the procreative apparatus exhibited by the Plweidee; and, while they have spoken at length 
in anatomical detail and discussion of the male organs of the Otariidw, yet, they exhibit a strange neglect or 
oversight with respect to those of the female. The singular cloacal arrangement of the female organs of generation 
in the Phocidw has excited comment and description from the earliest times. 

Oversight of other writers. — The modification of the reproductive apparatus peculiar to the male Otariidw, 
in contradistinction with those organs possessed by the male Phocidw, has been noticed to some extent by several 
authorities t prior to the date of this publication ; but, while calling attention to those marked changes in the 
morphology of the male organs of the Otariidw, they are silent in regard to the fact that, though the Phocidw are 
very distinct, by the armature of the males, from the Otariidw, yet the cloacal arrangement of the females in both 
genera is identical. This is in itself, as I view it, quite as remarkable with regard to the females as it is noteworthy 
in respect to the males. Surely the wonderful modification of the physical structure of the male fur-seal from that 
of his kindred, the hab-seal, is very great; and we are not surprised to find that his generative organs are 
pronounced, in common with all the others, distinct. So the females differ, physically, in every respect, to as great 
a degree, with the solitary exception of the intrauterine life, and the cloacal form of the external genitalia. 

Necessity op understanding- this subject. — This subject of the method of reproduction, as carried out 
by the fur-seals on the breeding-grounds of the Pribylov islands, should be understood distinctly and authoritatively, 
before the truth or falsity of certain hypotheses, which depend upon it, can be intelligently discussed. The general 
impression and commonly-received opinion in the popular, as well as the scientific world, is that the amphibian 
life of the ocean breeds in the water thereof; or, in other words, that the fertilization of the seal-life takes place 
by coition therein, and that the young may be born in this watery element, safely nurtured and cared for by their 
mothers.f No end of fanciful rumor and romance has been published touching this point. We are told that 
some man of great credibility, has seen seals in the water, with their new-born clasped on their bosoms, rising 
in the waves to look at their disturbers, and then sinking, to carry away their young to safety and quiet. By 
this fanciful description, undoubtedly, the mermaid owes its origin in our recent mythology ; for the hair-seal, 
in especial, has a bland, round, fidl physiognomy; the large circular eyes are placed more in front of the skull than 
in the crania of any other genera of its kind. Such a head popping up suddenly in front of the mariner might 

*When tliey the approaching time perceive, 
They flee the deep, and watery pastures leave; 
On the dry ground, far from the swelling tide, 
Bring forth their young, and on the shores abide 
Till twice six times they see the Eastern gleams 
Brighten the hills, and tremble on the streams ; 
The thirteenth morn, soon as the early dawn 
Hangs out its crimson folds or spreads its lawn, 
• No more the fields and lofty coverts please, 

Each hugs her own, and hastes to rolling seas. 

— Old Roman Poem : Hair-seals of Ike Mediterranean. 
t Allen: North American Pinnipeds, 1880. Murie : Trans. Zool. Soe., 1869-72. 

X Reasonably enough, the closet naturalist, no matter how able, will be deceived now and then in this manner by untrustworthy 
statements made by those who are supposed to know by personal observation of what they affirm. 

As an apt illustration of the confusion which the best of closet of naturalists are thrown into by irrepressible information touching 
this very matter, I may cite the case of Hamilton, who, in 1839, while writing of the fur-seal of Cook and Forster, discovered 
particularly by them on South Georgia, in 1771, declares it to be no fur-seal at all! He feels warranted in doing so, because one Captain 
"Weddell says so. This authority was a hardy sailor who made sealing a specialty in the Antarctic during 1823-'26. Hamilton, after 
specifying the wide range of this Arctocephalus, "at Dusky bay, New Zealand, in New Georgia, Staten Land, Juan Fernandez, and the 
Gallapagos", goes on to say — 

"It will be observed that several of these authorities, particularly Dampier and Cook, speak of the fineness of the fur of this seal. 
It is probably these statements which have led the able author of the article Phoque, in the Diet. Classique d'Bist. NatureUe, to state that 
this seal is the fur-seal of commerce. His words are: 'L'otarii de Forster est le Phoque a fourrures des pecheurs europcens.' But this, 
we suspect, is a mistake. No one will doubt that Captain Weddell was familiar with the fur-seal. He was also familial' with the ursine- 
seal, both as encountered in its haunts and as described by naturalists ; and yet, when speaking of the ursine-seal (so denominated by 
him), he never once hints that its fur has any peculiar value, but the contrary." [Amphibious Carnivora: Edinburg, 1839, p. 265.] 

Thus Hamilton quotes this old mariner, Weddell, throughout his whole memoir, with the utmost trust ; and in the same manner others 
have been cited. They are worthless, unless taken "cum grano salis". The sum and substance of it is this: when most of the sea-faring 
sealers and whalers are in the field, they are blind to everything except the mero capture of their quarry. When they return, they are 
importuned for those details which, in fact, they have never thought of while away. 




^-i-^lVj 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 103 

naturally suggest a human face; and it needs but a very little embellishment to trim it with long tresses, place mammas 
on its bosom, and all the other peculiar attributes of the yellow-haired mermaid so celebrated in song and art. 

Fine opportunities for observation. — Therefore, what I wish to distinctly settle with regard to the 
reproduction of tbe fur-seal, which I now have under consideration, is that mooted question as to the place, the 
manner, and the time of the union of the two sexes necessary for the procreation of their kind. I have no personal 
knowledge of the system of fertilization employed, with reference to it, by the Phocidce; hence I shall not attempt 
to describe it.* What I have heard from the natives would point clearly to the fact, that they know nothing 
really worthy of scientific attention ; but in regard to the fur-seal I have had unusual advantages, and an 
extended experience, ranging over four consecutive breeding-seasons, in which thousands of these animals, all 
perfectly in unison, have passed within the scope of my observation and record. 

Genitalia op the male and female fur-seal. — Considering the male Callorhinus. When it is first born 
the external organs of generation are not evidenced to the sight, and it requires a nice touch to find them under the 
skin. It is not until this animal has rounded off the second year of its existence, that the testicles descend and 
become outwardly exposed: first, faintly, but rapidly succeeding to the same prominence and same relative position 
that they occupy in the example of the dog. When this creature attains three and four years of age, its testes 
hang pendant in a somewhat flabby scrotum, which in the old male is as pendulous as that of the bull in the Bovidce; 
the sack is smooth and shiny, entirely devoid of hair, and black, with a slightly wrinkled surface. The sheath of 
the penis is so merged with the skin of the abdomen that it does not lie ribbed there and prominent as in the other 
carnivora ; but it is an erectile organ, with a bony skeleton, when fully developed, that measures from five to seven 
inches in length. During excitement its appearance is closely, if not exactly, similar to that organ of the dog. The 
females have their parts of generation precisely as they are described by Owen and Huxley — which descriptions are 
based upon examples of the well-known Phocidce} their external organs are entirely concealed, by the fact that the 
rectum terminates on the opposite side of the vulva; and a common, somewhat flaccid, sphincter closes both 
apertures. In other words, the anal and genital openings of the female are united into a single one, through 
which the regular secretions of the body pass, and the forces of reproduction are received and introduced. Thus, 
while the female Phocidce correspond in this respect with the female Otariidce, yet the extraordinary development 
of the male organs in the Otariidce are quite marked in their normal rising, when contrasted with their subsidence, 
as exhibited by those peculiar to the Phocidce.] 

No evidence of rutting odors: Speedy birth of pups. — When the male fur-seals, or " seecatchie", 
as the natives call them— a term implying strength and virility — arrive first upon the breeding-grounds, long 
before the coming of the females, as described in a preceding chapter of this monograph, they give no evidence 
of being in rut; nor do they emit any odor during the rest of the season which at all resembles the "rutting 
odor" ascribed to many animals. I call attention to this because a common blunder has been made, and likely will 
be made, whereby the smell upon the rocks, so far-reaching and so offensive, is called the " rutting funk". It is, 
as I have also stated, due to other causes which are conspicuous and which have been specified heretofore. 
When the females came to land upon the breeding-grounds, I noticed that, with the exception of the virgin 
cows, they were heavy with maternity; that the period of their gestation must soon culminate by the birth of their 
offspring, which usually took place within a couple of hours after they reached the shore, or within as many 
days at the most. Frequently I have observed the mothers land, and ere they were dry the young would 
be expelled; and the thought rose then to my mind "how wonderfully well-timed is this return of those gravid 
cows " — for, in spite of tempests and currents, and many of them quite two and three thousand miles from their 
winter feeding-places, yet they reach this land-speck in Bering sea just in season for instant delivery after arrival !$ 

*The inconsequential numbers of tbe hair-seal around and on the Pribylov islands, seem to be characteristic of all Alaskan waters 
and the northwest coast; also, the Phoeidw are equally scant on the Asiatic littoral margins. Only the following four species are known 
to exist throughout tbe entire extent of that vast marine area, viz: 

Piioca vtttjlixa — Everywhere, between Bering straits and California. 

Piioca FffiTiDA— Plover bay, Norton's sound, Kuskokvim mouth, and Bristol bay, of Bering sea; Cape St-artzo Kammin, Arctic ocean 
to Point Barrow, and also over tbe entire extent of the polar coast of Siberia. 

ERIGNATHUS bap.batus — Kamtchatkan coast; Norton's souud, Kuskokvim month, and Bristol hay, of Bering sea. 

I-IiSTiiiOPHOCA fasi _i ata— Yukon mouth, and coast south to Bristol bay, of Bering sea, and drifting ice therein. 

Then, in addition to this, Mr. Ivan Petrov, the Alaskan special agent of the Tenth Census, United States, reports the presence of a land- 
locked seal in tbe fresh waters of Uiamna lake, and also in lake Walker. It may he as distinct from any of tbe Phaeidiv above enumerated 
as is the Baikal or the Caspian seals ; and, as such, I suggest that it shall receive tbe name of Piioca pelrovi, when it is eventually secured, 
and if identified as new to our lists.— Preliminary Report of Progress, Census of Alaska: Ivan Petrov, Washington, December, 1*80. : p. 45. 

In this connection it is a somewhat curious fact, that the description which Aristotle [300 B.C.] gives of the hair-seal (Honaehus 
albiventer, very likely) is, in most respects, correct; while Button, the celebrated French zoologist, as late as 1785, has not, despite bis 
vasi advantages, been nearly as accurate in bis treatment of the pinnipeds. That tbis old Grecian philosopher, three hundred years before 
the Chris! inn era. should have done better in this respect than that world-wide, distinguished academician did more than two thousand 
years afterward, affords an entertaining suggestion as to the alleged degeneracy of the present age, especially so since the monument 
elected over Button's remains bears au inscription which declares that be possessed "a mind equal to the majesty of nature". (!) 

t See Owen's Anatomy of Vertebrates, vol. iii, p. 699, London, 1SI53. The Phoeidw are the subject of this eminent author's examination 
ami report. 

tit' there is any one faculty better developed than the others in the brain of tbe intelligent Callorhinus, it must be its "bump" of 
locality. Tie' unerring directness with which il pilots it.- annual course back through thousands of miles of watery waste to these 



104 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Pangs of impending parturition alone prompt females to land. — The females do not land until they 
are obliged to by the precipitation of this event of parturition. They appear over the breeding-grounds of St. Paul 
just as they come in contact with the shore — guided and influenced at the moment of approach to the islands by only 
one ruling thought, and that is, to reach as near as possible the locality upon which they resided in former years. 
Soon after landing, which I have heretofore described, the birth of the young takes place, and in this wise : the cow 
shows, an hour or so prior to delivery, great nervous agitation; she trembles all over; her eyes blinking, and 
flippers twitching; rolling, stretching, and thoroughly uneasy, until tbe labor-pains ensue. If the ground where 
she happens to rest is rocky, she manages to lie upon the top of a bowlder, her hind-flippers work spasmodically 
with a wavy, fan-like motion backward and forward, as she rests full upon her stomach, with the fore-flippers 
alternately pressed tightly to the rock or closely to her sides, like pectoral fins; she sways her head, her eyes 
are partly closed and her mouth slightly opened in panting, during the fifteen or twenty minutes which usually 
ensue between the first contraction of the uterus, until the expulsion of the intra-uteriue life takes place. These 
labor-pains are not, in my opinion, at all very severe or abnormal in any respect. The pup carries with it, at the 
moment of birth, the entire placental pouch or "after-birth". This envelope is broken, usually by the mother, in 
forcing the labor and during the first expulsion of the pup's head, which is always presented in advance. The 
little " kotick" may be said to fairly drop upon its feet, for the moment it appears from within the natal walls it 
seems to be in full possession of all its faculties ; its eyes are wide open, and its voice is raised in weak, husky 
bleatings, as it feebly paddles around, still attached to the umbilical cord, which, by its own efforts, it pulls asunder 
as it flounders about on the rocks or ground of the rookery. The mother, in the meantime, gives her offspring 
none of that attention so marked in the case of the canidcc and other carnivores, not even turning to look at it; but 
she draws herself up with an expression of intense comfort and relief, throwing her head back with a gentle, 
swaying motion, as she fans herself slowly with either one or both of the hind-flippers. She also pays no attention 
to the cleansing of her own person, the after-birth lying undisturbed by her; it will be speedily trampled under 
foot and ground out of recognizance by the restless multitudes around her, that pass to and fro. The pup quickly 
dries off, with rapid alternations of short naps and awakenings, in which it gets up and on its flippers to essay 
brief scrambles over the rocks and ground until, in nosing about, it claims the attention of its mother (sometimes 
hours after birth); this she gives by gently elevating her abdomen and turning her parts posteriorly, so that 
one or two of the obscure teats, filled with milk, can be seized by the hungry pup, which now nurses therefrom 
greedily, even to gorging itself. 

Milk of the fur-seal. — The milk of the fur-seal mother is very rich and creamy, and the secretion is 
always abundant, but there is not, under any circumstances, the enlarged udder and mammas peculiar to dogs and 
similar animals; the nipples are scarcely distinguishable, even when exposed to the reach and notice of the young. 

Irregular feeding of the pups. — The umbilicus of the pup rapidly sloughs off, and the little fellow grows 
apace, nursing to-day heartily in order that he may, perhaps, go the next two, three, or four days without another 
drop from the maternal fount ; for it is the habit of the mother-seal to regularly and frequently leave her young, 

spots of its birth — small fly-dots of land in tbe map of Bering sea and tbe Nortb Pacific — is a very remarkable exhibition of its skill in 
navigation. While the Russians were established at Bodega and Ross, California, sixty years ago, they frequently shot fur-seals at sea. 
when hunting the sea-otter off the coast between Fuca straits and the Farralones. Many of these animals, late in May and early in June, 
were so far advanced in pregnancy that it was deemed certain by their captors that some shore must be close at hand upon which the 
near impending birth of the pup took place; thereupon, the Russiaus searched over each rod of the coast-line of the mainland and the 
archipelago, between California and the peninsula of Alaska, vainly seeking everywhere there for a fur-seal rookery. They were slow to 
understand how animals, so close to the throes of parturition, could strike out into the broad ocean to swim 1,500 or 2,000 miles within a 
week or ten days ere they landed on the Pribylov group, and, almost immediately after, give birth to their offspring. 

There is no record made which shows that the fur-seals have any regular or direct course of travel up or down the northwest coast. 
They are principally seen in the open sea, eight or ten miles from land, outside the heads of the straits of Fuca, and from there as far 
north as Dixon sound. During May and June they are aggregated in greatest numbers here, though examples are reported the whole year 
round. The only fur-seal that I saw, or which was noticed by the crew of the "Reliance", in her cruise, June 1 to 9, from Port Townseud to 
Sitka, was a solitary "holluschack" that we disturbed at sea well out from the lower end of Queen Charlotte island; then, from Sitka 
to Kadiak, we saw nothing of the fur-seal until we hauled off from Point Greville, and coming down by Ookamok islet, a squad of agile 
"holluscbickie" suddenly appeared among a school of hump-back whales, sporting in the most extravagant manner around, under, and 
even leaping over the wholly indifferent cetaceans. From this eastern extremity of Kadiak island clear up to the Pribylov group we daily 
saw fur-seals here and there in small bands, or also as lonely voyageurs, all headed for one goal. We were badly outsailed by them; 
ndeed, the chorus of a favorite "South-Sea pirate's" song, as incessantly sung on the cutter's "'tween decks", seemed to have special 
iadaptation to their vanishing forms : 

" For they bore down from the windwi'ard, - 
A sailin' seven knots to our fonr'n." 

The ancient Greeks seemed to have been impressed somewhere by rookery odors, since Homer says — 

" The weli-footed seals forsake the stormy swell, 
And, sleeping in herds, exhale nauseous smell." 

Where this illustrious bard sniffed up this characteristic unpleasantness of breeding-seals, I am at a loss to say. The Pribylov islands 
and the great Antarctic grounds were as far from that poet then, as the moon is from us to-day. He must have been introduced to it within 
the confines of the Caspian sea, or else credibly informed, by trustworthy authority, of this peculiarity of the large herds of Phochhv in 
those waters. Small bands, however, of hair-seals breed now, as they bred then, in the Mediterranean and Black seas. He may have 
stumbled upon a few of them while provoking his muse in lonely travels over Grecian pelagic shores. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 105 

on this the spot of its birth, to repair for food in the sea; she is absent by these excursions, on account of the fish 
not coming' inshore within a radius of (at the least) one hundred miles of the breeding-grounds, through intervals 
varying, as I have said, from a single day to three or four, as the case may be. The manner in which she returns 
after feeding, and in which she singles out by scent, and at a glance, her own offspring from many thousands 
surrounding it, I have clearly described in a foregoing chapter.* 

Preliminary advances of TEE sexual union. — The pup being born, the cow rapidly passes into "beat". 
I have noticed examples where ten hours ouly elapsed between the event of the birth and that of copulation, and 
I doubt not of full impregnation for another period. But as a rule forty-eight hours will be the fair figure to express 
the time from the birth to the appearance and desire known as "being in heat". The cow always makes the first 
advances to the bull. If she is one of the earlier subjects for his attention, it is no sooner said on her part than 
done on his; but should she be of the later applicants in his harem, after he has been more or less wearied and 
exhausted by the vital drafts made upon him, she must wait. I have observed instances of this character in which 
the female teases the male for hours and hours before arousing his desire. Indeed, I had brought strongly to mind 
that same coquetting so comically rendered in the barn-yard of almost every farmer, where the turkey-hen solicits 
the turkey-cock. When thus teasing the male, the female croons up by his shoulders, playfully biting and pulling 
at his neck and mouth, stretching herself flat and quivering posteriorly before him, until the hot blood of desire is 
excited in the wearied and languid male, and then he closes the pantomime. 

Pelagic coition impossible.— In this act of coition on these breeding-grounds of St. Paul and St. George, 
1 have noticed the fact, that whenever the female was well covered by the male on the flat or smooth shelves of rock 
or earth, then' they moved and shuffled about without any particular effective coition until brought up against a 
rougher inequality, or some fragments of lava shingle, so characteristic of the rookery grounds. The reason for 
this is due to the fact, that in spite of the great weight of the male, six times more than that of the female which 
it covers, the orgasms are so rapid and violent that, unless the female is held by some other agency than the weight 
of the male, she is literally shoved ahead and away from under him. This fact I call attention to, as it alone is 
sufficient, upon the slightest reflection, to satisfy any judicial mind that it is a physical impossibility for these seals 
to copulate in the water. Under no conceivable position assumed for this supposed pelagic coition could eli'ectual 
sexual connection be made.t 

Action of reproduction. — The male serving the female covers her exactly as a big Newfoundland dog would 
mount a small terrier slut. The "seecatchie" draws his heavy body over and upon the outstretched spine of the 
female, which lies prone before him on her stomach ; so that when the male has adjusted himself, which he does by 
arching his back from the shoulders to the os coccyx, he covers her so completely that nothing of her form can be 
seen, except a portion of her head just peering out from between his fore-flippers and under his broad chest. The tips 
of her hind-flippers are now and then visible, as he humps his back with each succeeding orgasm. Notwithstanding 
their great rapidity and the muscular power employed, these orgasms last, without interruption, for the surprising- 
space of from eight to fourteen minutes — not a second's intermission. Of course, toward the close of the season, 
when the male is tired, he does not remain in coitu longer than three or four minutes. On account of the vigor and 
duration of this first coitus, I am inclined to think that that female has no further intercourse with that male, or any 
other one, during the rest of the season. She is satisfied, and passes rapidly out of heat. Certain it is that she is 

"When the females first come ashore there is no sign of affection manifested, whatever, hot ween the sexes. The males arc surly 
and morose, and the females entirely indifferent to such reception. They are, however, subjected to very harsh treatment sometimes in 
the progress of battles between the males for their possession, and a few of them are badly bitten and lacerated every season. 

One of the cows that arrived at Xah Speel, St. Paul island, early in June, 1872, was treated to a cruel mutilation in this manner, under 
my eyes. AVhen she had finally landed on the baroiju rocks of one of the numerous "seecatchie" at the water front of this small rookery, 
and while I was carefully making a sketch of her graceful outlines, a rival bull, adjacent, reached out from his station and seized her with 
Ilia mouth at the nape of the neck, just as a cat lifts a kitten. At the same instant, almost simultaneously, the old male that was rightfully 
entitled to her charms, turned, and caught her in his teeth, by the skin of her posterior dorsal region. There she was, lifted aud 
suspended in mid-air. between the jaws of her furious rivals, until, in obedience to their powerful struggles, the hide of her back gave 
way, and, as a ragged Hap of the raw skin more than six inches broad and a foot in length was torn up and from her spine, she pass* d, 
with a rush, into the possession of the bull which hail covetously seized her. She uttered no cry during this barbarous treatment, nor did 
she, when settled again, turn to her torn and bleeding wound to notice it in any way whatsoever that I could observe. 

When severe inflammation takes place, they seek the water, disappearing promptly from your scrutiny. 
t Those extremely heavy adult males which arrivo first in the season, and take their stations on the rookeries, are so fat that they 
do not exhibit a wrinkle or a fold of the hide enveloping their blubber-lined bodies; most of this fatty deposit is found around the 
shoulders and the neck, though a warm coat of blubber covers all the other portions of the body save the dippers: this blubber thickening 
of the neck and chest is characteristic of the adult males only, which are, by its provisions, enabled to sustain tbo extraordinary 
protracted fasting periods incident to their habit of life and reproduction. 

When those superlatively fleshy bulls first arrive, a curious body tremor seems to attend every movement that the animals make 
on land; their fat appears to ripple backward and forward under their skins, like waves; as they alternate with their flippers in 
walking, the whole form of the "seecatchie" shakes as a howl full of jelly does when agitated on the table before us. 

There is also a perfect uniformity in tbo coloration of the breeding coats of the fur-seals: and it is strikingly manifest while inspecting 
the rookeries late in .Inly, when they are solidly massed thereon. At a quarter mile distance, the whole immense aggregate of animal 
life seems to be fused into a huge homogeneous body that is alternately roused up in sections and then composed, jusl 8 ■< quantity id' 
iron filings, covering the bottom of a saucer, will rise and fall, when a magnet is passed over and around the dish. 



106 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

not noticed by him again ; she goes up to his seraglio-grounds, to and from the sea, seeking her young and feeding 
undisturbed for the balance of the time; also, that the other bulls seem to recognize this; condition of passed sexual 
requirement and satisfaction, in her case, by paying her no further attention. 

Period op gestation. — Thus it is apparent that the period of gestation in the fur-seal is nearly, lacking a 
few days, twelve calendar months; for, the next year finds her again heavy with young, at almost exactly the same 
day that she gave birth to her previous offspring in the prior season. The systematic and regular appearance of 
the females every year upon the Pribylov islands at such a time, usually in late June and early July, without the 
slightest regard to what the weather may have been during the winter and spring previous, or is when they land, 
establishes without doubt this exact limit of their gestation. 

Importance of this service. — The reason why I dwell upon these details, is because they have a very 
important bearing upon the question as to what ratio of males every year is needed for service on this great breeding- 
ground of Bering sea. If the common opinion, hitherto entertained, was tenable, of free and effective pelagic 
coition, then it will be readily understood that nearly all the males from four years up, could have easy access to the 
females ; and, that it would be a matter of very small concern how many old males, or rather those males upon the 
land located over the rookeries, were fit for service. But, understanding, as I now do, without a shadow of tenable 
contradiction, that these "seecatchie" which receive, fight for, and cover the females on the rookeries, are the 
only active fertilizing powers toward the reproduction and perpetuation of their kind, the importance of my detailed 
description of the method of coition is evident; for it shows conclusively, that unless we see every year, long prior 
to the arrival of the females, a full supply of able-bodied " seecatchie" holding out upon and located over the 
rookeries of St. Paul and St. George — unless we see such a number in good condition — we may safely count upon the 
fact that danger will arise of imperfect and nugatory fertilization for the coming year. It will not do to indulge the 
hope should a scarcity or diminution of the old males ever occur, when the rookeries are mapped out in spring, of 
the deficiency being made good by the young males which are swimming around everywhere in the water. 

Vitality of the male. — 1 believe that an able-bodied adult "seecatchie" is capable of serving well from 
the 14th June to the 14th July, during which period the height of the breeding-season occurs, one hundred 
females. If he is, however, as he frequently is, enfeebled by previous fighting and struggling with other males to 
hold the station which he has selected and fought for, it is more than likely that his virility will not extend beyond 
the proper serving of twenty or thirty cows. As I have said in another place, I found great difficulty in settling, to 
my own satisfaction, a fair number of females as the average to every harem on the rookery. * Some instances occur 
where the male treats forty-five or fifty females, owing to the peculiar configuration of the landing-grounds; but 
most generally, and as the rule, I think fifteen or twenty cows to every bull is a true computation; hence, I do not 
believe that under any normal circumstances and all normal disadvantages, such as fighting involves by weakening 
the males, that, when the females arrive, there is the least risk of a single oue of them getting back to the water 
without a perfect and effectual impregnation. A common opinion was prevalent on the islands among the employes 
touching this matter, that, when the female was not instantly covered during her first heat, she went to the water, 
cooled off, and on returning, sexual desire never reappeared; and thus she became a farrow or barren cow from that 
time to the end of her natural life. Analogous physiology confutes this completely ; that such warm-blooded, highly- 
organized creatures should never have a rapid recurrence of sexual desire, in common with all other animals of their 
class, until it is gratified in the usual way, is not at all probable, though it may be possible. 

Small number op barren females.— To show, however, that a very small proportion of the myriads of 
breeding females are barren, I have only to present this illustration, which is happy in its conclusion, and easily 
portrayed: whenever a female ceases to breed she refuses to haul upon the rookeries; she roams with the 
"holluschickie", or the "bachelors", growing a third heavier and marked with corresponding darker tones to her 
coat, yet still preserving the familiar pattern of the " niatkah", so that she can be picked out quickly by an experienced 
eye from the old and young males around her. In driving the " holluschickie" up to the killing-grounds every season, 
the natives noticed, and pointed out to me, those barren cows in the drive, several of which were secured for my 
examination, and measurement ; but the proportion of sterile females is not more than one in a thousand to the 
"holluschickie" with which they consort. 



* This striking an accurate average is still further complicated hy that unknown distribution of the virgin females that come up 
to the rookeries every year for their first meeting with the virile males. What proportion of them reach the rear of the breeding-grounds, 
compared with their numhers which are served at the water-lino! I surely am at fault to say, for they do not leave that tangible evidence 
which the other older cows do in the forms of their yonng. One of the curious contradictions to generally received ideas of the habit of 
seals is the fact, that the fur-seal will not rest either upon snow, or ice; it seems to positively avoid all contact with both of those 
substances upon which the Phocidoe wholly, and the sea-lions to some degree, delight in hauling over. CaUorhinus has the warmest of 
seal-coats, by all odds, yet it dreads a snowy or an icy bed with as much sincerity as any habitu<5 of the tropics can. The sca-hous and 
hair-seals have often been surprised in sporting, or sleeping on the ice floes of Bering sea in the spring, by whalemen while cruising at tbe 
edge of the frozen pack, waiting for the channel to open, clear, into the Arctic ocean; as neither JSumetopias nor Plioca have any under 
wool, their sea-jackets are not half as heavy as those peculiar to the bodies of fur-seals ; hence in taking personal notice of this odd aversion 
of the Callorhinns to snow and ice, I believe that its dislike is one of pure sentimentality rather than one based on physical inability to 
rest upon as cold surfaces; for there is not much difference between the water's temperature and that of the snow and ice in the spring— 
10° Fahr., perhaps — both cold enough at all events. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 107 

Age of females wren first pregnant.— As to the time when the virgin cow is first covered by the bull, 
I found a strange medley of ideas among the people ou the island. The common opinion of the others and the 
natives was. that they were not covered until they were three years of age, bringing forth their first young in the. 
former case ( /. e. the generally accepted versions), when they reached their fourth year. But this, on examination, was 
not a dime-nit problem at all to solve. The evidence every year decides, while the- yearlings are driven up to the 
village iu the fall, that although to external appearance there is no difference between the sexes, an examination 
conclusively established the fact, that the yearling females herded with the yearling males on the hauling-groumls, 
each about equal in number, and also when the balance of the ''hollusehickie'', two-year-olds and upward, were 
driven in they never found a female* in the droves. Where were these two-year-old females then ? They were not 
upon the hauling-grouuds with the yearling females and bachelors. Where were they .' The answer is, they have 
come up on the breeding-grounds, clothed with desire and supplied with physical life to meet prospective maternity. 

Eelative duration of life: Terrestrial reproduction. — This fact also shows that, as the female fur- 
seal is so conspicuously inferior to the male, physically viewed, as to size and weight, so also is her life lessened. 
In other words, when she is matured, as she must be by her third year, in bearing then her first pup, she can 
reasonably be expected to live no longer than nine or ten years, according to the general natural law governing this 
question; while the male, not coming to his maturity and physical prime until he is five or six years of age, lives, 
in obedience to the same law, fifteen or twenty years. Thus living longer than the lemale, being six times as strong 
and heavy, he is the most eminent of all polygamists known to the brute world. Why should he fight six weeks or 
two months, uninterruptedly, a succession of bloody battles with his own kind, if the younger seals could reach his 
wives iu the water? Xo; the cows laud to give birth to their young, and they must be ou that land to receive 
the effectual fecundation of their kind. Let no man be deceived, therefore, in looking over the myriads of hundreds 
of thousands of young males seen every season up here, and think that the battles of the old "seecatchie" are matters 
of brutal pomp and circumstance, so far as the reproduction of their race is involved. Let that man look well to 
the conditions of the males on these breeding-grounds, and the females with them, if he would regard intelligently 
the condition of the seal-life for the present season, and its prospect for the future. 

Fighting: Old and young jiales. — The males under six years of age, although hovering about the sea- 
margins of the breeding-grounds, do not engage in much fighting there ; it is the six and seven year-old males, 
ambitious and flushed with their reproductive consciousness, that swarm out and do battle with the older ones 
on these places. The young male of this latter class is, however, no real match for a fifteen or twenty-year- 
old bull; provided, that the aged "seecatchie" retains his teeth; since, with these weapons, his relatively harder 
thews and sinews give him the advantage in almost every instance, among the hundreds of combats which I have 
witnessed. Those trials of strength between the old and the young are incessant until the rookeries are mapped out ; 
and by common consent the males of all classes recognize the coming of the females. After their arrival and 
settlement over the whole extent of the breeding-grounds, about the loth July at the latest, very little fighting 
takes placet 

Only one put born at tiiie of parturition. — Touching the number of young born, at a birth, the most 
diligent inquiry and scrutiny of observation on the rookeries has satisfied me that it is confined to a single pup. 

* i". c. nubile female. 

tit has been suggested to mo that the exquisite power of seent possessed by these animals enable them to reaeh the breeding-grounds 
at about the place where they left them the season previously: surely the nose of the fur-seal is endowed to a superlative degree with 
those organs of smell, and its range of appreciation in this respect must be very great. 

"In carnivorous quadrupeds the structure of the hones of the nasal cavities is more intricate than iu the herhivorons, and is calculated 
to afford a far more extensive surface for the distribution of the nerve. In the seal this conformation is most fully developed and tho 
bony plates are here not turbinated, bat minified, as shown in the wood-cut. Eight or more principal branches rise from the maiu trunk, 
and each of these is divided and subdivided to an extreme degree of minuteness, so as to form in all many hundred plates. The olfactory 
membrane, with all its nerves, is closely applied to every plate iu this vast assemblage, as well as to the main trunk and to the internal 
surface of the surrounding cavity, so that its extent cannot be less than 120 square iuches in each nostril. An organ of such exquisite 
sensibility requires an extraordinary provision for securing it against injury, and nature has supplied a mechanism for the purpose, 
enabling the animal to c'ose at pleasure the orifice of the nostril." [Harwood: Comp., Anat., and Physiol., Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii, p. 
402. J 

I noticed in all sleeping and waking seals that the nasal apertures were never widely expanded; and that they were at intervals 
rapidly opened and closed with inhalation and exhalation of each breath; the nostrils of the fur-seal are, as a rule, well opened when 
the animal is out of water, aud remain so while it is on land. 

The distances at sea. away from the Pribylov islands, in which fur-seals are found during the breeding-season, are very considerable, 
scattered records have been made of seeing large bands of them during August as far down the northwest ci ast as the y probably range 
at any season of the year, viz, well out at sea in the latitude of Cape Flattery, 17 : to VJ : south latitude. In the winter and spring, up 
to middle of June, all classes arc found here spread over wide areas of the ocean; then, by the I51h June they will have all departed, 
the first and the latest, en route for the Pribylov islands. Then, when seen again in this extreme southern range. I presume the 
unusually early examples of return, toward the end of August, are squads of the yearlings ot both -exes. f,,r this division is always tlifl 
last to land on. and the first to leave, the seal-islands, annually. Also, the two-year-old females which have been covered on the br 
grounds, during June and July, undoubtedly stray. back to sea, and down again from the Pribylov group, very early in August, some of 
them as tar as the coast-heads of Fuea straits: at least, many of them at one time are never - on the rookeries, and as they 

do not consort with the "holluschickie'' and yearlings ou land, quite a number of their large aggregate doubtless make frcqnent and 
extended fishing excursions during the height of the breeding-season. 



108 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

If they have twins, I hare failed to discover a single instance of that character. I also failed to notice a malformed 
pup or a monster anywhere among the multitudes under my observations, from July until the middle of November 
every season. I think this somewhat noteworthy, as it presents, perhaps, better than any other exhibition in the 
animal kingdom, the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence; for these bulls, by their own evolution, 
permit only the strongest and most perfect of their kind to stamp their impress on the coming generations.* 

20. REPRODUCTION OF THE SEA-LION. 

Reproduction of the sea-lion (Eumetopias Stelleri). — The remarks which I have just made descriptive of 
the generative organs of the fur-seal, apply to those of the sea-lion, with this exception, that the male Eumetopias 
is an animal twice the size and bulk of the male CallorMnus. The female Eumetopias is not nearly so small in 
physique, when compared with the male of her kind, as is the female CallorMnus — she is fully half the stature and 
weight of the male. They, too, land for birth and copulation precisely as the fur-seal does, only they are few and 
scattered as to numbers, much more timid, and difficult to observe. The minutice, however, of gestation, fecundation, 
and the birth of their young, so far as I could see, is simply that of the fur-seal, and nothing more ; although I believe 
that the young sea-lion takes to the water earlier and freer than the young fur-seal, of which I have spoken at length 
heretofore. Perhaps it is quickened for this pelagic preparation by the excessive timidity of its nature, though, as a 
pup, like the fur-seal, it is stolid and indifferent to man ; but when it appears the coming season, as a yearling, its 
apprehension and fear are in marked contrast with that comparative disregard of our presence, manifested by the 
yearling lur-seal. 

Scratching seals mistaken for coition. — The coition of the sea-lion, like that of the fur-seal, is very 
violent, and long sustained. Even the sluggish natives, familiar as they are with this feature in the great swarm 
of animal life surrounding them, will always pause, sit down, and wait, if they detect this animal preparatory to 
and during the process of generation. At a little distance from them, on the deck of a vessel, the vibratory motion of 
their flippers, the bobbing or quivering of their shoulders just protruding as they expose themselves above the water, 
suggests to the mind of the superficial observer the act of copulation; when, in fact, the seals are as far from that 
performance as can be well imagined.! 

21. REPRODUCTION OF THE WALRUS. 

Reproduction of the walrus {Odobamus obesus). — As I have enjoyed remarkable advantages to study 
herds of those old walrus which repair to Walrus islet, adjacent to St. Paul, it makes me unhappy to think that 
among their number I had no view of the females or their young ; the latter, for some good reason or other, never 
consorting with the former at this place. At least the natives assured me that in all their experience, and that of 
their ancestry, they never found a female there. I am told, however, when the egging-party from St. Paul 
made its regular annual journey to this walrus rock, during the last season, several females were found and 
one was shot, the first examples of their sex seen in this locality; hence, I am unable to give any information as to 
the reproduction of these animals. I wish, however, only to call attention to the remarkable and extraordinary 
development of the male organs of this animal, so closely allied to the Otariidw. For instance, in order that I may 
be understood, the male walrus, when fully grown in length, though nearly as thin osteologically and morphologically, 
as the sea-lion, possesses an immensely greater girth and relatively increased weight; but the penis of the walrus 
has an enormous bone for its foundation, nearly two feet in length, with a transverse diameter at its base of 
almost three inches, tapering slightly to a point, where it ends in a rough, bony nodule, over an inch in diameter. 

* A trained observer, Kumlein, who passed the winter of 1877-78 in Cumberland sound, and, speaking of this feature in the Ringed 
Seal (Phoca fmtida), says "there is usually but one young at a birth; still twins are not of rare occurrence, and one instance came under 
my observation where there were triplets ; but they were small, and two of them probably would not have lived had they been born." 
[Ludwig Kumlein: Bulletin U. S. National Museum, No. 15, p. 58, Washington, 1879.] I quote this explicit statement in this 
connection, because the female generative organs in the Otariidw do not differ to any sensible degree from those so well known in tho 
Phocidm of that sex, though there is a very marked differentiation between the procreative organs of the males. Hence, it would seem 
only natural for twins to be born of fur-seal mothers; and, very likely it does repeatedly take place on the rookeries of the Pribylov 
islands, in spite of my failure to detect the result. I have personally witnessed the parturition of hundreds of fur-seal mothers, never 
seeing more than one pup born to each mother; yet, when a million are born here at simultaneous intervals between the 14th of Juno and 
the 20th of July every year, as a rule, my record is too slight numerically for authoritative settlement of the question. I commend its 
further investigation to the resident agents of the Treasury Department and the Alaska Commercial Company. It is an interesting and 
highly important subject for careful study and determination — no other single inquiry is more so. 

t The fur-seal and sea-lion are both sorely annoyed by a species of tick or louse — a Pedicuhis — which infests those small semi-haired 
spots back of the ears and within the armpits of their fore-flippers ; they spend a very large portion of their time, while on land, and even 
in tho water, by scratching these vermin. This action on land is precisely effected, and enjoyed, as our dogs do when exterminating fleas : 
the hind-flippers are used to reach all parts of the seal's body anteriorly ; while the fore-flippers are rubbed over the small of the back with 
great unction. While in the water, however, the seal scratches itself more with its' fore-hands; and in thus rubbing itself, half or 
almost wholly submerged, the bobbing of its back and hind -flippers above the surface has given rise to the erroneous idea of pelagic 
coition. 



Plate XXVI 



Monogra ph — SE AL-ISLA N DS. 







A FUR-SEAL, as drawn by C. Landseer, 1848. 
O. nigra— Black Otary." [Eneyclo. Metropolitana, London, 1848, Fig. 2, pi. ix, p. 109 ] 

[Evidently drawn from an alcoholic or air-dried specimen of an Arctocephalus pup, in its black natal coat.— H. W. E.) 




- wmBT 

V, 

B gife fl _- 





1 



THE FUR-SEAL. 

(Callorhinus ursinus.) 

[Fac-simile of a figure engraved on steel from a drawing by Sidney Edwards based upon Stellev's description, published as "Plioca ursina" in the 
Book of Nature, vol. i, pi. 53, Pbila., 1834. This is, in its aggregate, one of the best figures of the Fur-sual given to the world prior to my life-stndies on 
the Pribylov Islands, 1872-'76, inclusive.— H. W. E.] 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 109 

This is au instrument, when padded with the fleshy muscular integuments peculiar to it, that renders the armature 
of the sea-lion positively insignificant by way of comparison. Like the sea-lion, the swollen testicles are external, 
though bunched and carried similar to those which we see on boars — not pendant. In closing the subject, I may 
fitly call attention to au extraordinary feature of the walrus, and suggest that in the vicinity of Bristol bay and 
south of Hunivak island, some two or three hundred miles to tlie eastward and southward of the place where I have 
observed this animal, I am told that female walruses breed in large herds, accompanied by the males, as well as 
further to the north, where they are said to be most numerous, bearing their young on the ice-floes above Bering 
straits. If it be true, in regard to the reproduction of the walrus in the neighborhood of Bristol bay, it is important, 
for here is a practicable point for au intelligent observer to establish himself, from which to take cognizance of 
the life and habits of this long-known though indifferently understood animal. 

Do these seals drink ! — One word in conclusion. Keturning to the seal-grounds, I have noticed whenever 
a female seal was startled, or a herd of "holluschickie" stirred up by myself, that, in struggling to get out of my 
way, they voided considerable urine ; and, indeed, they all eject urine when excited, while some of them, here and 
there, passed small masses of their peculiar soft excrement, which is like that dropped by calves soon after birth. 
Their incessant pattering over the hauling-grouuds wipes up all traces of these excrementitious droppings, so that 
unless one looks closely he will not notice the fact. The old males, when lauding in spring, and during their 
battles also, void a great deal of urine, but little or no excrement. That the seals drink or need fresh water, I 
doubt; but they cool their mouths incessantly by swimming with them wide open through the w T aves, laving as it 
were their hot throats and lips in the flood.* 



I. ILLUSTRATIVE AND SUPPLEMENTAL XOTES. 

22. THE RUSSIAN SEAL-ISLANDS, BERING AND COPPER, OR THE COMMANDER GROUP. 

Extracted from Professor Nordenskiold's Report in reference to Bering island. 
[Translated by Capt. G. Niebaum.] 

Arrival of Nordenskiold : Location of Bering island. — The Yega anchored on the 14th August, 1879, 
in a rather poor, open harbor on the northwest coast of the island. Bering island is the most westerly of the 
Aleutian islands, and is situated nearest Kamtchatka; it does not belong, nor does the neighboring Copper island, 
to America, but to Asia, and is controlled by Russia; nevertheless, the American Alaska Company have obtained 
the hunting privilege, and maintain here a not inconsiderable trading-station, which consists of about 300 
inhabitants, supplying them with provisions and manufactured goods, and from them in turn receiving their labor, 
principally rendered in taking skins of the eared-seal, or sea-bear (Otaria ursina); between 40,000 and 100,000t of 

* "Do tbcse seals drink?" is a question doubtless often uppermost and suggested to the observer's eye, as he -watches those animals 
going to the water from the hauling-grounda and the rookeries; at least it was in mine. I never could detect Callorhinus or Eumelopias 
lapping, neither in the fresh-water pools and lakes, nor iu the brackish lagoon, or the sea; but it plunges at times into the rollers with its 
jaws wide open as it dives, reappearing quickly iu the same manner to dip, and rise again, many times in rapid succession as it swims 
along, the water running in little streams from the corners of the open mouth whenever the head pops above the surface. Whether this 
action was simply to cool itself, or that of drinking, I am not prepared to assert positively. I think it was to meet both purposes of 
refrigeration and of satisfying thirst. 

Nothing passes from the bowels or the urinary organs of these old males after they have hauled out, except their soft, paste-like fa>ces 
and that urine voided within the first forty-eight hours since lauding. The "holluschickie", however, and the females give frequent 
evidence of the regular movement of their digestive and secretive organs iu this manner, throughout the whole period of their visit to the 
islands, especially so when they are suddenly started up to travel over the hauliug-grounds to the slaughtering-tields. 

t These figures are in error; the table given at the close of this translation will show it. It is well known that the fur-seal, as it bred, 
was first seen and described by Steller, who wrote his description on this islaud, when shipwrecked there with Bering, in 1741-42. 
Steller's account and the stories of the survivors drew a large concourse of rapacious hunters to the Commander islands; they appear, as 
near as I can arrive at truths, from the scanty record, to have quickly exterminated the sea-otters, and to have killed many and harrassed 
the other fur-seals entirely away from the island; so that there was an interregnum between 17(50 and 1786, during which time the Russian 
promyshleuiks took no fur-seals, and were utterly at loss to know whither these creatures had fled from the islands of Bering and Copper. 
When they (the seals) began to revisit their haunts on the Commander islands, I can find no specific date; but I am inclined to believe 
that they did not reappear on Bering and Copper islands to anything like the number seen by Steller, until 1837- J 38; perhaps have not 
done so until quite recently. At least, in 1867, the Russians did not think more than 20,000 skins could be secured there annually, while 
they declared KlO.uiHi eould be taken readily at the Pribylovs ; again, since 18G7 the capacity of the Commander group has gradually 
increased from 15,000 to 20,000, then to 40,000 and 50,000 " holluschickie " per annum. Now, this striking improvement is due, doubtless, to 
the superior treatment of the whole business by the Alaska Commercial Company, which had also leased these interests from the Russian 
government iu 1871 for a term of 20 years. I think, therefore, that when the fur-seals on the Commander islands became so ruthlessly 
hunted and harrassed shortly after Steller's observations iu 1742, then they soon repaired, or rather most of the survivors did, to the 
shelter and isolation of the Pribylov group, which was wholly unknown to man; and it remained so until 1786-'87. Then succeeded a 
period between, up to 1842-'45, when the unhappy seals had but little rest or choice between the Commander and the Pribylov islands, 
and must have sadly diminished, as the record shows, in numbers. 

The unfortunate overland journey of Steller, which alternately starved and froze him into a low fever that ended his young and 
promising life in a yourt on the Siberian steppes, November 12, 1745, six years prior to the first publication of his celebrated notes on the 



110 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

these animals are killed yearly on this and the neighboring Copper island ; those are the animals from -which is 
obtained the brown, silky, soft seal-skin, which of late has become so fashionable. In order to watch over the 
interest of the Eussian government and to maintain order, there are also a few Russian officers stationed here. 

Sketch op the village. — A half dozen convenient wooden houses are here erected, used for warehouses and 
stores, also for the use of servants of the Eussian government and of the company. The natives live partly in 
adobe houses, quite roomy and not unpleasant inside; partly in small wooden houses which the company are 
gradually endeavoring to introduce, instead of turf houses, by yearly importing and giving away a few such houses 
to the most deserving ones of the inhabitants. A church for Greek-Catholic service is also, there, and a roomy school- 
house intended for children of the Aleutians. Unfortunately, the school was now closed, but to judge from the 
copy-books which were lying around in the school-room, the teaching here is not to be despised. At least the writing 
proofs were conspicuous for their cleanliness, absence of school blots, and an exceedingly even and beautiful 
handwriting. At the "colony" the houses are collected in one place in a village, which, from the sea, has the 
appearance somewhat of a small Norwegian fisherman village. Beside these, a few scattered houses are to be found 
here and there on other parts of the island, as, for instance, on the northeast side, where cultivation of potatoes is 
carried on on a small scale, at the hunting-place on the north side, where a couple of large warehouses and a number 
of very small underground houses are to be found, and are used only during the killing-season. 

Discovery of the island. — Geographically, as well as in regard to natural history, Bering island is one of 
the . most curious islands in the northern part of the Pacific ocean. It was here where Bering, after his last 
disastrous voyage in this sea, which now bears his name, on the 19th of December, 1741, finished his long career as a 
discoverer, shortly after his ship, during a storm, crushed against the cliffs on the north coast of the island. Many 
of his fellow-travelers survived him, among them the learned naturalist Steller, who left a masterly description, 
seldom equaled, of the natural history of this island, where he involuntarily spent his time from the middle of 
November, 1741, to the end of August, 1742. 

As far as is known, Bering island had never before been visited by man. It was the desire to obtain for our 
museums the skins and skeletons of the many curious mammiferous animals existing here, as also to compare the 
present condition of the island, since it has nearly a century and a half been mercilessly exposed to hunting and the 
cupidity of mankind, with the vivacious and striking description left by Steller, which prompted me to put down 
on our traveling plan a visit to the island. The news I gathered on Bering island from American papers, about the 
uneasiness which our wintering in the Arctic had created in Europe, really prevented me from remaining here as 
long as I should have wished; but, nevertheless, our collections and observations are exceedingly valuable. 

Changes since Steller's time. — Since the time of Steller, the animal life has undergone a considerable 
change on the island. Foxes (or, more correctly, "fjellrackor", Swedish) existed then in unusual numbers. Not 
alone did they eat up everything that could be eaten at all which was left outside, but they forced themselves in the 
houses during the day as well as night, and carried away anything they could, even articles that could be of no 
use to them, such as knives, sticks, sacks, shoes, and socks. It became necessary, when doing certain things out of 
doors, to drive them away wilh sticks, and at last they became — through the slyness and cunning with which they 
managed to consummate their thieving, aud the cleverness with which they combined their efforts to attain objects 
which they alone could not accomplish — really dangerous, mischief-making animals for the castaways. Since then 
thousands upon thousands have been taken here by fur-hunters. Now they are so rare that dui ing our stay here 
we did not see a single animal. The remaining ones are said not to have the formerly so commonly-seen black- 
blue coat, but the white, which is not very costly. On the neighboring Copper island there are still considerable 
numbers of black-blue foxes. * 

Steller and his fellow-travelers killed here in 1741-'42, seven hundred sea-otters. This animal, known for its 
very costly and fine fur, is now entirely driven from Bering island. 

Of sea-lions, Otaria Stelleri, which were formerly very numerous, but few now visit this place; also sea-bears, 
Otaria ursina, and finally, the most curious of all the former mammalia on Bering island, the great sea-cow, is 
now altogether extinct. 

Marine "neat cattle". — Steller's sea-cow, BJtytina Stelleri, took the place, in a certain way, of the hoofed 
animal among the sea-mammalia. It was of a nut-brown color and covered with hair which had grown together 
into an outer hide, much like the bark of an old oak tree. Its length was, according to Steller, even to 35 feet, and 
its weight almost five hundred hundred weight. The head was large, neck short, hardly distinguishable, forepart 
of body very thick, but suddenly narrowing backward. It had two short fore-legs, which terminated abruptly 
without any fingers or nails, but with close-gathered bristle hair; hind-legs were missing altogether and replaced by 
a tail-fin, something like the whale. Teats, which were very rich in milk with the females, had their places between 
the forelegs. The flesh and milk resembled very much that of neat-cattle ; it was even better than the latter, 
according to Steller. 

"sea-bears" of Bering island, often occurs sadly to ray mind in this connection ; for, undoubtedly, had he lived then to have reached St. 
Petersburg, whither he was bound, he would have enlarged and polished these items, which now appear in the Proceedings of the 
Imperial Academy, 1751, just as he had roughly drafted them in the field, May and June, 1742. This revision of his field jottings would 
have undoubtedly supplied many links now missing to the disconnected history of the seal-life on the Commander islands, as it presents 
itself to us at this late day.— H. W. E. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. Ill 

The sea-cows were almost constantly occupied in feeding on those sea-weeds found in abundance along the coast, 
in doing which they moved neck and head as an ox. They showed great gluttony, and were not disturbed in the 
least by the presence of people. It was possible to go up to and even to touch them without their being scared or 
seeming to mind it. Toward each other they showed great affection, and when one was harpooned the others 
made unusual efforts to save it. 

When Steller was there these animals collected in great herds as neat-cattle, grazing everywhere along the 
shores. A great number were killed by Steller and his companions. Later the hunt for these animals was an 
important food-item for those Russians who sailed from Kaintohatka to the Aleutian islands. Hundreds were killed 
yearly, and it was soon exterminated, as it existed, if we except a few animals gone astray, at that time only on 
Bering island. According to what Middendorf quotes from the very careful researches which the celebrated 
academicians v. Baer and v. Brandt had made, the sea-cow had not been seen before Steller's time, 1741, and the last 
was said to have been killed in 17GS. During the many investigations I made among the natives, 1 obtained reliable, 
information that the sea-cow had been killed much later. A "creole" (*. c, a mixture of Russian and Aleut), who 
is now sixty-seven years old, of clever appearance and perfect mental condition, said that his father died in 1847, 
aged eighty-eight. The father was from Wolhynien, and came to Bering island when eighteen years of age, that 
is, in 1777. The first two or three years (that is, 1779 or 17S0) after his arrival, they used to kill sea-cows as they 
grazed at low-water mark. Only the heart was eaten; the hide was used for badarrahs. In consequence of its 
thickness it was split in two parts. Two such split hides were sufficient to cover a badarrah of -'0 feet length, 74 
feet width, and 3 feet depth. After that time none of these animals had been killed. 

Last sight of sea-cow here. — It is surmised that a sea-cow had shown itself nmch later around the island. 
Two "creoles", Teodor Merchenin and Stepnoff, saw, about twenty-five years ago, at Tolstoi Alees, on the east of 
the island, an animal which they did not know; it was very thick forward and tapered backward, had small fore- 
feet, and showed itself about 15 feet above the water, rising and again sinking. It blew, not through a blow-hole, 
but through its mouth, which was somewhat elongated. Its color was brown, with large light spots. It had no 
fin on the bade, but when it raised itself it was possible to see the vertebra? lumps, in consequence of its very lean 
condition. I made a very thorough examination of the two tales-men. Their story agreed fully, and appeared as 
if entitled to be given credence. 

One of the Alaska company's hide-examiners, Mr. Ohsche, a native of Lifland and for the present living on 
Copper island, told me that bones of the sea-cow could be found on the west side of Copper island, in the center. 
Again, it is said that no bones exist on the little islet, opposite the colony, although bones are plenty on the 
neighboring beach on the main island. This is the meager information I could gather from the natives and other 
people residing here about the animal. But I was very fortunate in being able to collect a very large and beautiful 
assortment of skeleton parts. 

Xoedenskiold's success in getting its bones.— "When I first made the acquaintance of the Europeans 
living on the island, I was told that there was a very poor show for making any large collections. The company 
had in vain offered 150 rubles for a skeleton. But after I had been ashore a few hours I already found out that 
larger and smaller collections of bones were to be found here and there in the huts of the natives. Those I 
bought, paying purposely for them in such a way that the seller was more than satisfied, and his neighbor a little 
envious. A large portion of the male population now commenced very zealously to hunt for bones, and in this 
manner I got together twenty-one casks, large boxes, and barrels full of Khytina bones, among them many very 
extensive bone-collections from the same animal, two whole, very pretty, and several more or less damaged skulls, etc. 

Bones of the extinct sea-cow of Stellee. — Rhytina bones are not lying near the water-edge, but on a 
beach-shelf, 6 to 10 feet high, thickly covered with grass. They are usually covered with a layer of earth debris of 
1 to 14; feet thickness, and in order to find them we had to explore the ground with a bayonet or a sharp iron, as it 
would have been too laborious to dig up the whole grass layer. A person very soon gets accustomed to distinguish, 
by the sound or the feeling of the bayonet, whether he has struck against a stone, a piece of wood, or a piece of 
bone. 

In consequence of their hard ivory -like condition, the Rhytina bones are used by the natives for sleigh-runners 
and for carvings. They are, therefore, already to a great extent used up and rarer than other bones. The bones 
from the finger seem in most cases to be entirely destroyed, and the same is the case with the extreme tail-parts. 

Fur-seals on Bering island.— The only large animal which still exists on the island, in perhaps as large 
numbers as at the time of Steller, is the sea-bear, Otaria ursiua. Even that had decreased so that the yearly catch 
was a very inconsiderable one, when the Alaska Company obtained the exclusive privilege for hunting, by a 
payment to the Russian government of, if I remember right, two rubles for each animal killed. The hunting was 
then organized on a more advantageous basis. At certain periods of the year the animals are now altogether 
unmolested. The number of animals to be killed is settled beforehand, just the same as the farmer in the fall of the 
year (slaughtering-time, Swedish custom) is in the habit of doing with his cattle. After that is done, the animals 
condemned to death are selected as well as can be done in a hurry, but animals with poor skin, old females and pups, 
are liberated. Those numerous flocks of sea-bears, which are found on the shores of Bering and Copper islands, are 
consequently handled nearly the same as a herd of tame animals. This can only be done in that manner, because 



112 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the animals are in the habit of spending- several months of the year, almost without interruption* and without 
eating any food, on certain long, rocky spits running out into the sea from those islands. They congregate here in 
hundreds of thousands, in closely packed flocks on the beach. On those places it is strictly prohibited to hunt the 
animal or to disturb it during its rest, without special permission from the village foreman, who is selected by the 
Aleuts living in the place. When a number of sea-bears are to be killed, a flock is surrounded by a sufficient number 
of hunters and are driven with sticks up on the grass a short distance from the beach. Then females and young- 
ones, and those males whose fur-coat is not desirable, are driven away. The remaining ones are stunned first with 
a blow on the nose, and then stabbed with a knife. 

Inspection of A rookery. — Accompanied by the village foreman, a black-haired stuttering Aleut, and the 
"Cossac", a young, neat, and polite man, who on special occasions carries a saber of nearly his own length, but 
who otherwise not in the least answered to the Cossac type accepted by writers of novels and dramas, a few of us 
visited a spit sticking out in the sea from the north side of the island, which is a favorite resting-place for sea-bears. 
Just at that time there were, in accordance with surely overestimated statements which we received, 200,000 animals 
congregated at the spit and neighboring beaches. Accompanied by our guides we received permission to crawl 
close on to a flock lying a little separate. The older animals were a little uneasy at first, when they noticed that we 
crawled near them, but they very soon settled down again, and we now had the pleasure of a peculiar spectacle. 
We were the only spectators. The scene consisted of a stone-covered beach wreathed with foaming breakers, the 
background of the unmeasurable sea, and the actors thousands of curiously-formed animals. 

A number of old males were lying si ill and immovable, unconcerned about what went on around them. Others 
crawled on their short, small legs clumsily among the rocks on the beach, or swam with incredible suppleness among 
the breakers, playing, cooing with each other, and quarreling. In' one place two older animals fought with a 
peculiar wheezing noise, in a manner as if the fighting had taken place with studied positions for attack and 
defense. In another, a sham fight between an old animal and a pup. It appeared as if that one was receiving 
lessons in the art of fencing. Everywhere the little black pups were crawling friskily to and fro between the 
others, now and then bleating like lambs calling their mothers. Often the pups are crushed by the old, when 
scared by some untoward circumstance they rush out in the sea. Hundreds of dead pups are found after such an 
alarm on the beach. 

"Only" 13,000 animals had been killed this year. Their skinned carcasses were lying heaped in the grass on 
the beach, spreading a disagreeable smell far and wide, which after all did not scare the comrades lying on 
neighboring points, because among them a similar smell prevailed on account of the many dead animals remaining 
on the beach, either crushed or dead from natural causes. Among this large herd of sea-bears a single sea-lion 
was enthroned on top of a high rock, the only one of those animals which we had seen during our travel. 

Against payment of 40 rubles I prevailed on the village chief to prepare for me four skeletons of those half 
rotten carcasses lying in the grass, and afterward I received, through the kindness of the Russian authorities and 
without any compensation, for stuffing, six animals, among them two live pups. Even those we had to kill, after 
in vain having tried to make them take food. One of them will be brought home, in alcohol, for anatomical 
investigation. 

Character op Bering island. — That part of Bering island which we saw is composed of a plateau resting 
on volcanic mountains,! which in many places is broken by deep canons. In their bottoms are usually found lakes, 
which through smaller or larger streams connect with the sea. 

The border of the lakes and the mountain slopes are covered with a rich vegetation of long grass and beautiful 
flowers, among which a sword lily, that is cultivated in our gardens, the useful dark-red brown Savannah lily, 
several orchids, two kinds of rhododendrons, large flowers, umbellifers the height of a man, sunflowers like 
synanthaus, etc. 

An entirely different kind of flora prevailed on the islet which lies outside the harbor. 

Toporkoff islet consists of an eruptive rock, which everywhere toward the shores, a few score yards from high- 
water mark, rises up in the form of abrupt, low, cracked walls from 5 to 10 meters in height, differing in different 
places. Above those abrupt mountain walls the surface of the island is formed of an even plane ; what lies below, 
forms a gradually sloping beach. 

The gradually sloping beach consists of two well-defined belts, an outer one without any vegetation, an inner 
one overgrown with Ammadenia peploides, Elymus mollis, and two kinds of umbellates, Heraclcum sibir'cum and 
Angelica archangelica, of which the two last named form an almost impenetrable brush, about 50 meters wide, 
man high, along the shelf. 

The abrupt mouutain walls are in some places yellow-colored from the Caloplacmus murormn and C. cremulata, 
in other places quite closely clothed with Cochlearia fenestrata. 

'During a long cont'mued heavy rain many of the animals are said to seek shelter in the sea, but return as soon as the rain ceases. 

t According to Mr. Greboritsky, tertiary petrifactions and seams of coal are found on Bering, the former north of the colony in the 
interior of the island, the latter at the water's edge south of Bering's grave. Also, uear the colony, the uuderlayer below trachyte beds is 
composed of immense sand layers. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



113 



The uppermost even plateau is covered by a luxuriant close grass-carpet, over which a few stalks of the two 
above-named umbellates raise themselves here and there. 

Vegetation on this little islet combines an unusual poverty of various species with a high degree of luxuriance. 

Of higher order of animals we saw only four species of birds, namely, Fraterenla cirrhata, I r ria grylle, one species 
of Phalacrocorax (Swedish skafvar), and one kind of the gull (Larus) species, which live here by the millions. They 
occupied the upper plateau, where they had everywhere dug out short, deep, and unusually broad passages, with two 
openings, in which they slept. From there they flew, on our arrival, in large flocks to and from the sea. Their 
numbers were almost comparable with the auks on the Arctic bird cliffs. The other ducks nestled along the shore 
cliffs. 

The number of the non-vertebrate land-animals foots up perhaps to thirty species. The most numerous are 
Machelis, Vitrina, Lithobias, Talitrus, a few two-winged beetles (bugs). They all lived on the inner belt of the 
shore, where the ground is unusually damp. 

Jlrcu milder climate THAN THAT of THE Pribylov group.— Bering island could, without difficulty, 
feed large herds of cattle, perhaps as numerous as the herds of sea-cows which formerly grazed along its shores. 
The sea-cow had, as it were, chosen its grazing place with discrimination, because the sea about here, according to 
Dr. Kjelman, is one of the richest kelp-places in the world. The bottom of the sea is covered, in favorable places, 
with kelp forests, from 00 to 100 feet high, which are so dense that the scraper with difficulty penetrates down in 
them, a circumstance which made the dredging exceedingly difficult. Certain kind of kelp is used by the inhabitants 
for food. 

Salmon on the island. — That spit, where the sea-bears have their rookeries, is about 20 kilometers distant 
from the village. We went there each on his sleigh drawn by about ten dogs. During this trip, at a resting-place 
half-way between the village and the rookeries, we had occasion to take part in a very peculiar fishing. Our halting- 
place was on an even grass meadow, cut through by innumerable brooks. Those were full of various kinds of fishes, 
among them a kind of siik (gwiniad, Swedish), a small trout (forell), a medium-sized salmon, with almost white meat, 
but with purple-red skin, and another of about the same length, but very broad and with a hump on the back. 
These were easily taken. They were taken by hand, harpooned with an ordinary blunt stick or any piece of wood, 
cut with knives, or taken with a bug-scoop. Other kinds of salmon, with very highly colored red flesh, are 
found in the larger streams on the island. We received here, for a mere nothing, a welcome change from the 
preserved food with which we had long ago become thoroughly disgusted. 

Courtesy of tiie Alaska Commercial Company. — Beside that, the expedition received, as a gift from the 
Alaska Company, fat and splendid, beeves, milk, and other refreshments, and I cannot sufficiently praise the 
good-will we experienced, as well from the Russian official, Mr. Greboritsky, an energetic and skillful student of 
natural history, as from the employes of the Alaska Company, and all other persons living on the island with whom 
we came in contact. [Translation closes. j 

Table submitted by the author, showing the "catch" on the Commander islands. — In order 
to show the relative importance of the seal business on these Russian islands as compared with that of our own, I 
append the following exhibit of what has been done there since 1802. Professor Nordenskiold does not seem to 
have gathered the information; he has, however, in his forthcoming Vegds-farden, embodied my figures: 

Fur-seal skins taken for shipment from the Commander islands. 



Years. 


Number 

of Meals 

taken. 


Years. 


Number 

of seals 
taken. 


Years. 


Numher 
of seals 
taken. 


1802 


4,000 
4,500 
5,000 
4,000 

4, 

4, 000 
12,000 




24, 000 
24, 000 
3, 6X4 

20,318 
30,396 

:il, 'J7L' 
36, 274 






1J-G3 








18G4 








1865 








18CG 































Bering's disaster. — The miserable ending to Bering's voyage of discovery in 1741-42 had one redeeming 
clause — the shipwreck of the commander's vessel gave Steller his opportunity of making the fur-seal rookeries 
known to man for the first time, in either history or legend. As the prime factor of this entertaining addition to 
our knowledge, I think a short recital of the misfortunes of the Russian expedition interesting in the relation which 
it bears to the subject of my discussion. 

Homeward voyage and shipwreck. — In 1741, June 4, Bering and Tschericov set sail from Petropavlovsky, 
in two small vessels, the "St. Peter" and the "St. Paul"; they proceeded as low as the o0° latitude, then decided to 
steer eastward for the reported American continent. On the 20th the rude ships were separated by a storm, and the 
two commanders never met in life again. Sunday, 18th July, Bering, while waiting for the other vessel, drifted on 
our northwest coast. He passed some six weeks in the new waters of his discovery, when bvthe 3d of September 
8 



114 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

a violent storm occurred and lasted seven days, driving them bade to 48° 18' north latitude, and into the lonely 
wastes of the vast Pacific. The scurvy began to appear on board; hardly a day passed without the death of 
one of the crew, and men enough in health were scarcely left to manage the ship. A return to Kamtchatka was 
resolved upon. Bering became morose and seldom appeared on deck, and the second iu command, Stoorman 
Vachtel, directed the dreary cruise. After regaining the laud, and burying a sailor named Shumagiu on one of the 
group of Alaskan islets that bear this title to-day, and discovering and naming several Aleutian capes aud islands, 
they saw two, which by an unfortunate blunder, they took for the Kuriles aad adjacent to Kamtchatka ; thus they 
erred sadly in their reckoning and sailed out on a point of false departure. In vain they craned their necks for the 
land — the shore of Kamtchatka refused to rise, and soon there was no hope of making a port iu that goal so late in the 
year. The wonderful discipline of the Bussian sailors was strikingly exhibited at this stage of the luckless voyage; 
notwithstanding their fearfully debilitated condition, and suffering from cold and wet, they obeyed orders aud 
attended to their duties. We are told by Steller that the scurvy had already so far advanced that the steersman 
was conducted to the helm by two other invalids who happened to have the use of their legs, and who supported 
him under the arms ; when he could no longer ste^r from suffering, he was succeeded by another no better able to 
execute the labor than himself; thus did the unhappy crew waste away into death ; they were obliged to carry few 
sails, for they had not hands to reef them, and such as they had were nearly worn out, and in this case they could 
not be replaced from the stores, since there were no seamen strong enough on the ship to bend new ones to the yards 
and booms. 

Soon rain was followed by snow, the nights grew longer and darker, and now they lived in dreadful anticipation 
of shipwreck ; the fresh water diminished, and the labor of workiug the vessel became too severe for the few who 
were able to be about. From the 1st to the 4th November the ship had lain as a log on the ocean, helpless, and 
drifting at the sport of the wind and the waves. Then, again, they managed to control her, and set her course 
anew to the westward, without knowing absolutely anything as to where they were. In a few hours after, the joy 
of the distressed crew can be better imagined than described, for they saw the tops of high hills, still at a great 
distance ahead, covered with snow. As they drew nearer, night came upon them, and they judged best, therefore, to 
keep out, "off and on," until daybreak, so as to avoid the risk of wrecking themselves in the dark. In the morning 
they found that the rigging on the starboard side of the vessel was giving way, and the craft could not be managed 
much longer; that the water was very low, aud the sickness increasing frightfully. The humidity of the climate 
was now succeeded by intense cold ; life was well-nigh insupportable on ship then, and they determined to make 
for the land to save their lives, and, if possible, safely beach the " St. Peter". 

The small sails were alone set ; the wind was north ; the depth of water 3G fathoms, sand bottom ; two hours 
after they decreased it to 12 ; they now contrived to get over an anchor and run it at three-quarters of a cable's 
length; at G p. in. the hawser parted, and tremendous waves bore the helpless boat through the darkness and the 
storm, in to the coast, where soon she struck twice upon a rocky reef. Yet, in a moment after, they had 5 fathoms 
of water; a second anchor was thrown out and again the tackle parted; and, while in the energy of wild despair, 
they were preparing a third bower, a huge combing wave lifted that ark of misery, of superlative human suffering, 
safely and sheer over the reef, where iu an instant she lay in calm water; the last anchor was put out, and the 
voyage of Bering came to an end, iu 4 fathoms of water, over a sandy bottom, and only 300 fathoms from the 
beach. In the morning they found that they had drifted in here at the only spot where they possibly could have 
been carried over a ridge of rocks — that 20 fathoms distance right or left of their course, high basaltic bowlders 
and jagged pinnacles arose from the sea, against which they must have perished, had they struck during the fury 
of the gale and the darkness of the night. 

The exhausted Eussians land. — Winter was now at hand ; the crew, worn down with excitement, fatigue, 
aud disease, reposed until midday, then lowered the boat; on the 0th November, Vachtel landed. They found 
the country barren and covered with snow. A clear stream of excellent water, not frozen, ran down from the hills 
to the shore ; no trees or even shrubs were visible ; firewood was driftwood on the beaches, so it had to be dug 
from under snow and icy fetters; shelter there was none, but they found near the open mouth of the little creek 
some sand walls, and deep wind-scraped hollows therein ; these they cleared out and covered over with the 
ship's sails, to serve as a temporary shelter until they could build a wooden cabin ; on the 8th November, the 
sand caves were prepared and the sick taken from the " St. Peter" and placed in them. Steller, the undaunted 
surgeon and naturalist, tells us that some of them died on being brought up from the ward-room below, others in 
the boat, aud others soon after lauding — the violent change of air snapped the slender threads remainiug that 
bound them to this life ; the bodies of the dead were instantly attacked by foxes, Tulpes lagopus, which came down 
suddenly to their strange prey without fear, apparently never having seeu man ; and were so bold that they 
actually mangled the feet and heads of the dead Eussians ere the living coidd bury them. 

Melancholy incidents of Bering's death. — On the 9th November, Bering himself was brought ashore, 
well shielded from the atmosphere and put into a sand hollow all by himself; of the officers, he, alone, died; 
his age aud temperament inclined him to inactivity ; he became delirious and cunning, taking his friends to be his 
enemies, some of whom, including Steller, could not come into his presence during his last illness ; he used to 
amuse himself by detaching the saud from the sides of the place where he lay, so that he soon covered his lower 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 115 

limbs entirely with it; those who attended him cleared it away at first, bnt finally he would not suffer them to do so, 
and showed impotent anger while they made the attempt; when he died at last, just 30 days after being brought 
ashore, he was almost buried by his own hands in the sandy bed of his death ; they interred him near the spot, 
and tlic island is his monument, and also the imperishable record of his singular end. 

Steller says that those who survived were those who resisted tlie desire to take to their beds, and whose natural 
flow of humor kept them sanguine and cheerful; the officers who had to be on deck and up at all hours looking after 
everything, were never taken down seriously, though they all were attacked by scurvy. Not long after Bering 
died, the ''St. Peter" was wrecked by a fearful southeaster; her cable parted, and she came ashore near by the 
Russian encampment, during the night of December 20; in the morning she was found buried 8 or 10 feet in the 
sand, completely shattered; this was a crushing blow to the survivors — they had counted alone on getting back to 
Petropavlovsky by her instrumentality. 

Escape or the survivors. — The survivors, 45 souls, lived through the winter on the flesh of sea-lions, the 
Khytina or Manatee, and thus saved theirHour, etc.; they managed to build a little shallop out of the remains of 
the "St. Peter", in which they left this scene of the most extraordinary shipwreck and deliverance in our auuals, 
ou the 10th of August, 1742, and reached Petropavlovsky in safety on the 27th. 

The nerve and courage op Steller. — Steller here saw the fur-seal breeding, first of all civilized men, 
in the waters north of the equator; and here he made the earliest record of its existence as an animal in the 
naturalist's lexicon ; the rookery to and from which he used to journey in observation was nearly nine miles from the 
camp; and, considering his physical condition — he was never a robust man — the fatigue that his excursions must 
have engendered would have deterred most men from making a second trip to the "laasbustchie" of Bering island. 

As our intelligence and appreciation of these valuable interests of natural science, and of commerce peculiar 
to the Pribylov group of Alaska and the Commander islands of Russia, increases, so does our regard and esteem 
for Steller advance; since he was the surgeon of that ill-fated expedition, his duties in this direction must have 
consumed nearly all of his time in the most imperative manner; what he did do, therefore, in the line of natural 
history, is still the more to be commended. 

23. ST. MATTHEW ISLAND, AND ITS RELATION TO ST. PAUL. 

Polar bears on the pkibylov group. — When the fur-seals first took possession of the Pribylov group, 
they undoubtedly found polar bears thereon ; at least, I firmly believe that if the bears were not about when they 
first arrived, it was not due to the inability of these creatures to get there in limited numbers, but rather to the 
fact that nothing on the islands invited them, or was as attractive as the field to the north; for this animal cannot 
endure with comfort a temperature which even the fur-seal will submit to. 

Provided with more walrus meat than he knew what to do with, the polar bear, in my opinion, has never cared 
much for the seal-islands; but the natives have seen them here on St. Paul, and old men have their bear stories, 
which they tell to the rising generation. The last "medvait" killed on St. Paul island was shot at Boga Slov, in 
1848 ; none have ever come down since, and very few were there before, but those few evidently originated at and 
made St. Matthew island their point of departure. Hence, I desire to notice this hitherto unexplored spot, 
Standing, as it does, 200 miles to the northward of St. Paul; and which, until Lieutenant Maynard and myself, in 
1874, surveyed and walked over its entire coast-line, had not been trodden by white men or by natives, since that 
dismal record made by a party of five Bussians and seven Aleuts, who passed the winter of 1810-11 on it; and who 
were so stricken down with scurvy as to cause the death of all the Russians save one, while the rest barely recovered, 
and left early the following year. We found the ruins of the huts, which had been occupied by this unfortunate and 
discomfited party of fur-hunters, who were landed there to secure polar bears in the depth of winter, when such 
ursine coats should be the finest. 

Topography of St. Matthew island. — St. Matthew island is a queer, jagged, straggling reach of bluffs 
and headlands, connected by bars and low-land spits; the former, seen at a little distance out at sea, resemble half 
a dozen distinct islands; the extreme length is twenty-two miles, and it is exceedingly narrow in proportion. Hall 
island is a small one that lies west from it, separated from it by a strait (Sarichev) less than three miles in width; 
while the only other outlying land is a sharp, jagged pinnacle rock, rearing itself over 1,000 feet abruptly from the 
sea, standing five miles south of Sugar-Loaf cone, on the main island. From the cleft and blackened fissure near 
the summit of this serrated pinnacle rock, volcanic fire and puffs of black smoke have been recorded as issuing. 

Our first landing, early in the morning of August 5, was at the slope of Cub hill, near cape Upright, the 
easternmost point of the island. The air coming out from the northwest was cold and chilly, and snow and ice were 
ou the hill-sides and in the gullies; the sloping sides and summits of the hills were of a grayish, russet tinge, with 
deep green swale flats running down into the low lands, which are there more intensely green and warmer in 
tone. The pebble bar, formed by the sea between cape Upright and Waterfall head, is covered with a deep 
stratum of glacial drift, carried down from the flanks of Polar and Cub hills, and extending over two miles of this 
water-front to the westward, where it is met by a similar washing from that quarter. Back and in the center of 
this neck are several small lakes and lagoons without fish; but, emptying iuto them are a number of clear, lively 



116 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

brooks in which were salmon parr of fine quality. The little lakes undoubtedly receive them ; hence, they were land- 
locked salmon. A luxuriant growth of thick moss and grass, interspersed, existed almost everywhere on the lowest 
ground, and occasionally strange dome-like piles of peat were lifted lour or five feet above the marshy swale, and 
appeared so remarkably like abandoned barrabaras that we repeatedly turned from our course personally to satisfy 
ourselves to the contrary. 

Changing vegetation. — As these low lands ascend to the tops of the hills, the vegetation changes rapidly to a 
simple coat of cryptogamic gray and light russet, with a slippery slide for the foot wherever a steep flight or climbing 
was made; water oozes and trickles everywhere under foot, siuce an exhalation of frost is in progress all the time. 
Sometimes the swales rise and cross the hill-summits to the valleys again, without any interruption in their wet, 
swampy character. 

Lairs of the polar bear. — Here, on the highest points, where no moss ever grows, and nothing but a 
fiueporphyritic shingle slides and rattles beneath our tread, are bear-roads leading from nest to nest, or lairs, which 
they have scooped out of frost-splintered rocks on the hill-sides, and where the she-bears undoubtedly bring forth 
their young; but it is not plain, because we saw them only sleeping, at this season of the year, on the lower ground, 
seemingly to delight in stretching themselves and rolling over the rankest vegetation. 

Glacial exhibits.— The action of ice in rounding down and grinding hills, chipping bluffs, and chiseling 
everywhere, carrying the soil and debris into depressions and valleys, is most beautifully exhibited on St. Matthew. 
The hills at the foot of Sugar Loaf cone are bare and literally polished by ice-sheets and slides of melting snow; 
the rocks and soil from the summits and slopes are carried down and "dumped", as it were, in numberless little 
heaps at the base, so that the foot of the hill, and out on the plain around, strongly put us in mind of those refuse 
piles which are dropped over the commons or dumping-grounds of a city. Nowhere can the work of ice be seen to 
better advantage than here, aided and abetted as it undoubtedly is by the power of wind, especially with regard to 
the chiseling action of frost on the faces of the ringing metallic porphyry cliffs. 

Extensive flora. — The flora here is as extensive as on the seal-islands, 200 miles to the southward, but the 
species of grammce are not near so varied ; indeed, there is very little grass around about. Wherever there is soil it 
seems to be converted by the abundant moisture into a swale or swamp, over which we traveled as on a quaking 
water-bed; but on the rounded hill-tops and ridge summits the wind-rubbed and frost-splintered shingle makes good 
walking; both of these climatic agencies evidently have an annual iron grip on the island. 

Fantastic cleavage of the rocks. — The west end of St. Matthew differs materially from the east; the 
fantastic weathering of the rocks at Cathedral point, Hall island, will strike the eye of a most casual observer as the 
ship enters the straits going south. This eastern wall of that point looms up from the water like a row of immense 
cedar- tree trunks; the scaling off of the basaltic porphyry and growth of yellowish-green and red mossy lichens 
made the effect most real, while, a vast bank of fog lying just overhead seemed to shut out from our vision the 
foliage and branches that should be above. This north cape of Hall island changes when approached, with every 
mile's distance, to a new and altogether characteristic profile. 

Our visit at the west end of the island of St. Matthew was, geologically speaking, the most interesting 
experience I have ever had in Alaska. The geologist who may desire to study the greatest variety of igneous 
forms in situ, within a short and easy radius, can do no better than make his survey here ; the rocks are not only 
varied by mineral colors, together with a fantastic arrangement of basalt and porphyry, but are rich and elegant 
in their tinting by the profuse growth of lichens, brown, yellow, green, and bronze. 

Hundreds of polar bears.— An old Eussian record prepared us, in landing, to find bears here; but it did 
not cause us to be equal to the sight we saw, for we met bears— yea hundreds of them. I was going to say that 
I saw bears here as I had seen seals to the south, but that, of course, will not do, unless as a mere figure of speech. 
During the nine days that we were surveying this island, we never were one moment, while on land, out of sight 
of a bear or bears ; their white forms in the distance always answered to our search, though they ran from our 
immediate presence with the greatest celerity, traveling in a swift, shambling gallop, or trotting off like elephants. 
Whether due to the fact that they were gorged with food, or that the warmer weather of summer subdued their 
temper, we never could coax one of these animals to show fight. Its first impulse and its last one, while within 
our influence, was flight— males, females, and cubs, all, when surprised by us, rushing with one accord right, 
left, and in every direction, over the hills and away. 

After shooting half a dozen, we destroyed no more, for we speedily found that we had made their acquaintance 
at the height of their shedding season ; and, their snowy and highly prized winter-dress was a very different article 
from the dingy, saffron-colored, grayish fur that was flying like downy feathers in the wind, whenever rubbed or 
pulled by our hands. They never roared, or uttered any sound whatever, even when shot or wounded. 

Excellence of the flesh. — Let me testify at this moment to the excellent quality of polar-bear steak ; we 
gave it a fair trial, and it conquered all our prejudices — mine in especial, because I had been victimized with 
black-bear meat many years before, in British Columbia. 

Immense size of the polar bear. — These bears impressed me greatly by their enormous size. One, shot 
by Lieutenant Maynard, measured exactly 8 feet from the tip of its nose to its excessively short tail, and could 
not have weighed less than 1,000 or 1,200 pounds; it had a girth of 24 inches around the muscles of the forearm 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 117 

alone, at the place where the skin was removed aud the foot cut off just back of the carpal joint, that corresponds 
to our wrist. This animal was very fat, and its head was seaned all over with wounds, evidently received in 
fighting with its kind. No worms were found in the intestines and stomach; the liver was speckled with light 
grayish-green dots, and normal. Many of them were seen grazing and rooting like hogs ou a common. 

Fitful sleep op bears. — They sleep soundly, but fitfully, rolling their heavy arms and legs about as they 
doze; for naps they seem to prefer little grassy depressions on the sunny hill sides and along the numerous 
water-courses; and their paths were broad and well beaten all over the island. We could not have observed less 
than 200 or 300 of these animals while we were there; at one landing on IJall island there were 10, scampering up 
and oft' from the approach of the ship's boat, at one sweep of our eyes. 

Fur-seals cannot land here. — The chief attraction to these bears, undoubtedly, at St. Matthew, is the 
walrus herds; aud the island's special adaptation by its position to a possibility of its ever being resorted to by 
the fur-seal, was the reason of my visit; and, the result of my careful examination shows conclusively that the. 
character of the gravel spits and necks which are the only landing-grounds offered, is such as not to be lit for the 
reception of breeding seals, as they would be speedily converted by them into a sheet of mud and slime ; aud there 
is no other ground presented save at the base of cliffs everywhere rising up from the sea. Seals, also, if they could 
laud here independent of this polar-bear scourge, which owns and controls St. Matthew, would find a climate 
that keeps snow and ice on the beaches until late in June, and still later; hence, I am well satisfied that the 
fur-seals have never visited this desolate land, nor will they ever rest upou it.* 

24. DIGEST OF THE DATA IX REGARD TO THE FUR-SEAL ROOKERIES OF TME SOUTH ATLANTIC 
AND PACIFIC, AND NUMBER OF SKINS TAKEN THEREFROM. 

Difficulty of finding credible records. — Before I introduce the reader to this subject, I desire to call 
his attention to the source from which nearly all the information which we have touching it is derived. It comes 
from the verbal and written statements of whalers and other seafaring men. The great difficulty which faces mo 
as I attempt to make up this digest from such authority, is the fact that I know the failing of sailors too well — am 
too conversant with their habits of loose and positively erroneous narration. For instance, as an illustration of this 
trouble: suppose A had taken a large cargo of fur-seal skins from the Crozette islands some time in 1820-'25, and 
when on the homeward stretch had been met at sea by B, another whaler or sealer; A would invariably tell B, in 
answer to queries as to where he got his catch, that he secured the seals at any other island far away from the 
real source of supply, in order that he might turn B aside, and have a clear held, and a full ship at the Crozettes 
again, when he should discharge at home and return. The story, however, would probably get into circulation, 
and into print, perhaps; and to-day is misleading us, just as it did B long ago. 

Scanty records. — If anybody doubts the correctness of my statement, made in the prefatory words of this 
monograph, to wit, that, though a sealing fleet of hundreds of vessels and thousands of men had repaired to the 
rookeries of the southern oceans, and had annually returned laden with the skins of the Arctoccphalits, still not a 
definite line as to the true result, i. e., the number of skins taken from those great Antarctic breeding-grounds, 
can be found in any writing, let him turn to the laborious work of Allen, who, for eight or nine long years, has 
ransacked the writings aud the musty records of a century back; and see iu his history of the Xorth American 
pinnipeds the pitiful sum of knowledge which he has gathered iu regard to the subject.! Prior to the tedious 
research and publication just referred to, in looking toward the same end, I gathered substantially as much 
information in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and in Hamilton's Amphibious Mammalia.^ But the amount of this 
information is so abortive and faulty that I hesitate to reprint it here; yet, perhaps, its republication, together with 
the equally brief and indefinite compilation of Allen, may draw out from some unexpected quarter further knowledge. 
Hence, I submit the following: 

DESTRUCTION' OF THE FUR-SEALS FOR THEIR PELTRIES. 

The value of the peltries of the fur-seal has led to wholesale destruction, amounting, at some localities, almost to extermination. 
Tin' traffic in their skins appears to have begun toward the end of the last century. Captain Fanning, of the ship Betsey, of New York, 
obtained a full cargo of choice fur-seal skins at the island of Masafuera, on the coast of Chili, in 1798, which he took to the Canton market. 
Captain Fanning states that on leaving the island, after procuring his cargo, he estimated there were slill left on tlie island between 
500,000 aud 700,000 fur-seals, aud adds that subsequently little less than a million of fur-seal skins were taken at the island of Masafuera 
alone, « a small islet of not over twenty-live miles in circumference, and shipped to Canton. || Captain Scammou states tbat the sealing- 
fleet off the coast of Chili, in 1801, amounted to thirty vessels, many of which were ships of the larger class, and nearly all carried the 
American flag. Notwithstanding this great slaughter, it appeals that fur-seals continued to exist there as late as 1815, when Captain 
Fanning again obtained them at this island. 1 " 

* This survey made by Lieutenant Mayuard aud myself is the first careful exploration of the island ; the only work hitherto done was 
the approximate charting of its coast from the decks of Cook's and Billings' and Bering's-vessels. Maynaid and myself made a detailed 
plotting of the island, and gave a copy to the United States Coast Survey in August, 1874. 

(Allen: History North American Pinnipeds, 1880, pp. 239,230. 

t Edinburgh, 1839. 

§ Fanuing: Voyages to the South Sea, etc., pp. 117, 118. Allen: Xorth American Pinnipeds. 

\\lb., p. 364. 

1i lb., p. -299. 



118 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

In tho vear 1800 the fur-seal business appears to have been at its height at the Georgian islands, where, in the single season, 110.000 
fur-seals arereported to have been taken, of which 57,000 were secured by a single American vessel (the Aspasia, under Captain Fanning). 
Vancouver at about this date, reported the existence of large numbers of fur-seals on the southwest coast of New Holland. Attention 
was at »nce turned to this new field, and in 1604 the brig Union, of New York, Capt. Isaac Pendleton, visited this part of the Australian 
coast but not finding these animals there in satisfactory numbers, repaired to Border's island, where he secured only part of a cargo 
(14,000 skins), owing" to the lateness of the season. Later 00,000 were obtained at Antipodes island. About 1806 the American ship 
Catharine, of New York (Capt. H. Fanning), visited tho Crozette islands, where they landed, and found vast numbers of fur-seals, but 
obtained their cargo from Prince Edward island, situated a few hundred miles southeast of tho cape of Good Hope, where other vessels 
the same year obtained full cargoes. 

In 18:10 tho supply of fur-seals in the southern seas had so greatly decreased, that tho vessels engaged in this enterprise " generally 
mado losing voyages, from the fact that those places which were the resort of seals", says Capt, Benjamin Pendleton, " had been abandoned 
by them, or cut off from them", so that the discovery of new sealing-grounds was needed. Undiscovered resorts were believed to exist, 
from the fact that large numbers of fur-seals were seen while cruising far out at sea, which must repair once a year to some favorite 
breeding-station.* 

Captain YVeddell states, that during the years 1820 and 1821 over 300,000 fur-seals were taken at the South Shetland islands alone, 
and that at the end of the second year the species had there become almost exterminated. In addition to the number killed for their furs, 
he estimates that not less than 100,000 newly-born young died in cousequence of the destruction of their mothers. 

So indiscriminate was tho slaughter, that whenever a seal reached the beach, of whatever denomination, it was immediately killed. 
Mr. Scott states, on the authority of Mr. Morris, an experienced sealer, that a like indiscriminate killing was carried on at Antipodes island, 
off the coast of' New South Wales, from which island alone not less than 400,000 skins were obtained during the years 1814 and 1815. A 
single ship is said to have taken home 100,000 in bulk, which, through lack of care in curing, spoiled on the way, and on the arrival of 
tho"ship in Loudon the skins were dug out of the hold and sold as manure! At about the same time there was a similar wasteful and 
indiscriminate slaughter of fur-seals at the Aleutian islands, where for some years they were killed at the rate of 200,000 a year, glutting 
the market to such an extent that the skins did not bring enough to defray the expenses of transportation. Later, the destruction of fur- 
seals at these islands was placed under rigid restrictions (see infra the general history of the northern fur-seal), iu consequence of which 
undue decrease has beeu wisely prevented. But nowhere else has there been a systematic protection of the fur-seals, or any measures taken 
to prevent wasteful or undue destruction. 

The subject in. 1873.— The above embodies Allen's gleaning of all that he could learn touching the subject. 
In 1873 I published the following : 

The "-overnnient of Buenos Ayres has, from the first, protected and cared for a small rookery of fur-seals under the bluffs at Cabo 
Corrientes, ou its coast, where some 5,000 to 8,000 are annually taken, but the seals here have no hauliug-grouuds like those on St. Paul; 
they are taken with much labor under the high cliffs of this portion of the coast, This is the only government aid and care that the seals 
have ever received outside of Bering sea. The following extract shows the way in which the fur-seals of the South came into notice : 

"Soon after Captain Cook's voyage in the Resolution, performed in 1771, he presented an official report concerning New Georgia, in 
which he o-ave an account of the great number of elephant-seals and fur-seals which he had found ou the shores of that island. This 
induced several enterprising merchants to fit out vessels to take them ; the former for their oil, the latter for their skins. Captain Weddell 
states that he had been credibly informed, that during a period of about fifty years, not less than 20,000 tons of oil were procured annually 
from this spot alone for the Loudon market, which, at a moderate price, would yield about £1,000,000 a year. 

"Seal-skins are very much used in their raw state as articles of apparel by tho natives of the polar zones ; when tanned, they are used 
extensively in making shoes; and the Eskimo have a process by which they make them water-proof («), so that, according to Scoresby, 
the jackets and trousers made of them by these people are in great request among the whale-fishers for preserving them from oil and wet. 
But the skins are not only used in this raw and tanned state as leather; on account of their silky and downy covering they constitute still 
more important articles connected with the fur-trade. Thus considered, seal-skins are of two kinds, which may be distinguished as hair- 
skius and/iic-skins. The former are used as clothing and ornament. by the Russians, Chinese, and other nations, and the latter yield a fur 
which we believe exceeds in value all others which have been brought into the market. Many seals supply nothing but hair, while others 
in different proportions produce both the hair and, underneath it, soft and downy fur. The majority, we believe, are to be considered 
merely as hair-skins, similar to the bear or sable, and of these some are excellent of their kind, and much prized."— (Hamilton : Amphibious 
Mammalia, Edinburgh, 1839.) 

It may be considered superfluous to read a lecture to the trader upon a matter so nearly touching his own interest, and yet there is 
one point, at the same time, which forms so essential a part of my subject, that I cannot withhold a word or two. These valuable creatures 
(fur-seals) have often been found frequenting some sterile islands in innumerable multitudes. By way of illustration, I shall refer only 
to the fur-seal as occurring in South Shetland. On this barren spot their numbers were such that it has been estimated that it could have 
continued permanently to furnish a return of 100,000 furs a year; which, to say nothing of the public benefit, would have yielded annually a 
very handsome sum to the adventurers. But what do these men do ? In two short years, 1821 and 1822, so great is the rush that they destroy 
320,000. They killed all, and spared none, Tho moment an animal landed, though big with young, it was destroyed. Those on shore 
were likewise immediately dispatched, though the cubs were but a day old. These, of course, all died, their number, at the lowest 
calculation, exceeding 100,000. No wonder, then, at the end of the second year, the animals in this locality were nearly extinct. So is it 
in other localities, and so with other seals, and so with the oil-seals, and so with the whale itself, every addition only making bad worse, 
All this might easily be prevented by a little less barbarous and revolting cruelty, and by a little more enlightened selfishness. 

With regard to this seal-fishery of tho south, the English and Americans have exclusively divided it between them, and wilh very 
great profits. It has'lately been stated (1839) that they together employ not fewer than sixty vessels in the trade, of from 2^0 to 300 tons 
burden. These vessels are strongly built, and have each six boats, like those of the whalers, together with a small vessel of 40 tons, which 
is put in requisition when they reach the scene of their operations. The crew consists of about 24 hands, their object being to select a 
fixed locality from which to make their various bateaux. Thus it is very common for the ship to be moored iu some secure bay and be 
partially unrigged, while at the same time the furnaces, try-pots, etc., required for making the oil arc placed on shore. The little cutter 
is then rigged and manned with about half the crew, who sail about the neighboring islands and send a few men here and there ou shore, 
where they may see seals or wish to watch for* them. The campaign frequently lasts for three years, and in the midst of unheard-of 
privations and dangers. Some of the crew .are sometimes left ou distant, barreu spots, the others being driven off by storms. They are 
left to perish or drag out for years a most precarious aud wretched existence, t 



'Fanning: royages, p. 487. t Robert Hamilton : Amphibious Mammalia, Edinburgh, 1839. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 119 

With regard to the maimer in which far-sealing was carried on then, we find in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 
the following facts: 

From about the year 1806 till 1823 an extensive trade was carried on in the South seas in procuring seal-skins. These were obtained 
in vast abundance by the first trailers, and yielded a very large profit. Tlio time was when cargoes of those skins yielded $5 or$6 a piece 
in China, and the present price in the English market averages from 30 to 50 shillings per skin. The number of skins brought off from 
Georgia cannot he estimated at fewer than 1,200,000; the island of Desolation has been equally productive, and, in addition to the vast sums 
of money which these creatures have yielded, it is calculated that several thousand tons of shipping have annually been employed in the 
traffic* 

Extermination, the result. — This gives a very fair idea of the manner in which the business was conducted 
in the South Pacific. How long would our sealing interests in Bering sea withstand the attacks of such a fleet of 
sixty vessels, carrying from twenty to thirty men each '. Hot over two seasons. The fact that these great southern 
rookeries withstood and paid for attacks of this extensive character during a period of more than twenty years, 
speaks eloquently of the millions upou millions that must have existed in the waters now almost deserted by them. 

Early authorities on the appearance op the fur-seal. — Whenever 1 have followed the records made 
by navigators of any one of these several islands in the Antarctic, from whence hundreds of thousands of fur-seals 
are said to have been annually taken, I have never found anything in the line of circumstantial evidence of the 
fact. For instance, had any vast rookery, such as is the one at Northeast point, St. Paul island, been in existence 
at Masafuera or Juan Fernandez, when they were visited by "William Dampier in 1083 — by Wood-Rogers in 170!) — 
in 1740 and 1707 by Anson and Carteret, surely the extraordinary spectacle must have provoked their attention 
and description. So far from hinting at any such congregation of massed seal life on the land, they, on the 
contrary, have more to say in regard to the wild goats which they found there, with the single exception of 
Dampier. Those were the progeny of the original stock left on the islands by Spanish pirates, long before (1503-00;. 
1 select these two islands for especial reference in this connection, because they had been well known to seamen 
before the hunting of the fur-seal was a recognized business, and described by them. According to the accounts 
of the sealers, they were the source of several of the largest cargoes of fur-seal skins that were ever taken from any 
one or two places south of the equator. 

Anson's VOYAGE, 1740- : 41. — The best description of Juan Fernandez written prior to the ravages of the seal- 
hunting fleet (1S00-13), is the personal account made of it by Richard Walter, the chaplain to Lord Anson's flagship, 
the "Centurion", who lived ashore there for three months, June to September, 1741. Anson's fleet of seven 
"caravels" was dispersed by a fearful storm in rounding the Horn, and the crews well-nigh exterminated by scurvy. 
Only four of the vessels succeeded in joining him here, which was the preordained rendezvous; and the ninety 
days in camp at Juan Fernandez were passed in recuperation of the men and refitting the shattered ships. 

Remarkable physical contrast between Arctic and Antarctic rookeries. — I offer this description, 
by Chaplain Walter, of these celebrated southern seating-grounds, as an interesting statement for comparison with 
that whicb I have given of the Pribylov group. Certainly the ultra difference in natural character between St. Paul 
and St. George at the north, and Crusoe's isle and Masafuera on the south, is strongly defined and remarkable. 
The ground-trailing, or creeping willow [Salix reticulata) of Bering sea is the only tree or shrub that the fur-seal can 
rub against on the Pribylov islands; but his southern brother is acquainted with the shadow of the cabbage palm. 
The following is a copy of AValter's picture, drawn from life, and it is a ver,y graphic one: 

Description of Juan Fernandez. — However, on the 10th of June, in the afternoon, we got under the lee of the island, and kept 
ranging along it at about two miles' distance, in order to look out for the proper anchorage, which was described to he in a bay on the 
north side. Being now nearer in with the shore, we could discover that the broken, craggy precipices, which had appeared so unpromising 
at. a distance, were far from barren, being in most places covered with woods, and that between them there were everywhere interspersed 
the finest, valleys, covered with a most beautiful verdure, and watered with numerous streams and cascades, no valley of any kind being 
unprovided with its proper rill. * * » * At four in the morning our cutter was dispatched with our third lieutenant to 
find out the bay we were in search of, who returned again at noon with the boat laden with seals and grass, for although the island 
abounded with better vegetables, yet the boat's crew in their short stay had not met with them, and they well knew th it even grass 
Would prove a dainty, as, iudeed, it was all soon eagerly devoured. [They were ill with scurvy.— II. W. E.] The seals, too, were 
considered as fresh provision, but as yet were not much admired, though they grew afterward into more repute, for what rendered them 
less valuable at this juncture was the prodigious quantity of excellent fish which the people aboard had takeu during the absence of the 
boat. 

The island of Juan Fernandez lies in the latitude of :»- 40' south, and it is a hundred and ten leagues distant from the continent 
of Chili. It is said to have received its name from a Spaniard who formerly procured a granl of it, and resided there some time with a, 
view of settling on it, but afterward abandoned it. * * * The island is of an irregular ligure. Its greatest 

extent is between four and five leagues, and its greatest breadth somewhere short id' two leagues; the only safe auchoragc at this island, 
is at the north side. 

The northern part of this island is composed of high, craggy hills, many of them inaccessible, though generally covered with trees : 
the soil of this part is loose and shallow, so that very large trees on the hills soon perish for want of root, and are then easily overturned. 
* * * The southern, or rather the southwestern part of the island, as distinguished in the plan, is widely different from the rest, being 
dry. stony, and destitute of trees, and very flat and low compared with the hills on the northern part, This part oi the island is never 
frequented by ships, being surrounded by a steep shore, and having little or no fresh water, and besides it is exposed to the southerly 
wind, which generally blows here the whole year round, and on the winter solstice very hard. 

* Elliott: Condition of Affairs \n Ahiska, p. 261 v 



120 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Vegetation of Juan FERNANDEZ. — The trees, of which the woods on the northern side of 1he island are composed, are most of 
them aromatics, and of many different sorts. There are none of them of a size to yield any considerable timber, except the myrtle trees, 
which are the largest on the island, and supplied ns with all the timber we made use of; but even these would not work to a greater 
length than forty feet. The top of the myrtle tree is circular and appears as if it had been clipped by art; it bears ou its bark an 
excrescence like moss, which iu taste and smell resembles garlic, and was used by onr people instead of it. We found here, too, tbo 
the plemento (palmetto ?) tree, and likewise the cabbage tree, though iu no great plenty ; and, beside, a great number of plants of various 
kinds which we were not botanists enough cither to describe or attend to. 

To the vegetables 1 have already mentioned, of which we made perpetual use, I must add that we found many acres of ground 
covered with oats and clover; there were also some few cabbage trees upon the island, as was observed before; but as they generally 
grew upon the precipices and in dangerous situations, and as it was necessary to cut a large tree for every single cabbage, this was a 
dainty that wo were rarely enabled to indulge iu. 

The excellence of the climate and the looseness of the soil render this place extremely proper for all kinds of vegetation ; for if the 
ground be anywhere accidentally turned up it was immediately overgrown with turnips and Sicilian radishes. 

This may iu general suffice as to the soil and vegetable productions of this place, but the face of the country, at least the north part 
of the island, is so extremely singular that I cannot avoid giving it a particular cousideratiou. I have already taken notice of the wild, 
inhospitable air with which it first appeared to us, and the gradual improvement of this uncouth landscape as we drew nearer, till we were 
at last captivated by the numerous beauties we discovered on the shore. And I must now add that the inland parts of the island did iu 
no way fall short of the sanguine prepossessions which we first entertained in their favor. For the woods which covered most of the 
steepest hills were free from all bushes and underwood, and afforded an easy passage through every part of them; aud the irregularities 
of the hills aud precipices iu the northern part of the island necessarily traced out by their various combinations a great number of 
romantic valleys, most of which had a stream of the clearest water running through them, that tumbled iu cascades at the bottom of the 
valley by the course of the neighboring hills, was at any time broken into a sharp, sudden descent ; some particular spots occurred iu 
those valleys where the shaded fragrance of the contiguous woods, the loftiness of the overhanging trees, aud the transparency and 
frequent falls of the neighboring streams, presented scenes of such elegance and dignity as would be with difficulty rivaled by any other 
part of the globe. It is in this place, perhaps, that the simple productions of unassisted nature may be said to excel all the fictitious 
descriptions of the most animated imagination. 

Animals of Joan Fernandez. — It remains now only that we speak of the animals and the provisions which we met with at this 
place. Former writers have related that this island abounded with vast numbers of goats; and their accounts are not to be questioned, 
this place being the usual haunt of the buccaneers aud privateers who formerly frequented these seas. And there are two instances, 
one of a Mosquito Indian and the other of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, who were left here by their respective ships, and lived alone 
upon this island for some years, and consequently were no strangers to its produce. Selkirk, who was the last, after a stay of between 
four and five years, was taken off the place (in 17CW) by the Duke and Dutchess privateers of Bristol, as may be seen at large in the 
journal of their voyage. His manner of life, during his solitude, was in most particulars very remarkable ; but there is one circumstance 
which he relates, which was so strangely verified by our own observations, that I cannot help reciting it. He tells us, among other things, 
that he often caught more goats than he wanted ; he sometimes.marked their ears and let them go. This was about thirty-two years before 
our arrival on this island. Now, it happened that the first goat killed by our people at their landing had its ears slit, whence we 
concluded that he had doubtless been formerly under the power of Selkirk. This was indeed an animal of most venerable aspect, dignified 
with an exceeding majestic beard, aud with many other symptoms of antiquity. During our stay on the islands we met with others 
marked in the same manner, all the males being distinguished by an exuberance of beard and every other characteristic of extreme age. 

But the great number of goats, which former writers describe to have been found upon this island, are at present very much 
diminished; as the Spaniards, being informed of the advantages which the buccaneers and privateers drew from the provisions which 
goats' llosh here furnished them with, have endeavored to extirpate the breed, thereby to deprive their enemies of this relief. For this 
purpose they have put on shore great numbers of large dogs who have increased apace and have destroyed all the goats in the accessible 
part of the country; so that there now remain only a few amongst the crags and precipices, where the dogs cannot follow them. These 
are divided into separate herds of twenty or thirty each, which inhabit distinct fastnesses, and never mingle with each other. By this 
means we found it extremely difficult to kill them ; and yet we were so desirous of their flesh, which we all agreed much resembled 
venison, that we got knowledge, I believe, of all their herds, and it was conceived, by comparing their number together, that they 
scarcely exceeded two hundred upon the whole island. * * * These dogs, who are masters of all the accessible parts of the island, 
are of various kinds, some of them very large, and are multiplied to a prodigious degree. They sometimes came down to our habitations 
at night, and stole our provisions, and once or twice they set upon single jjersons j but, assistance being at hand, they were driven oft" 
without doiug any mischief. As at present it is rare for goats to fall in their way, we conceived that they lived principally upon young 
seals ; and, instead, some of our people bad the curiosity to kill dogs, sometimes, and dress them, and it seemed to be agreed upon that 
they had a fishy taste. 

Seals at Juan Fernandez.— Goats' flesh, as I have mentioned, being scarce, we rarely being able to kill above one a day, and our 
people growing tired of fish (which as I shall hereafter observe abound at this place), they at last condescended to eat seals, which by 
degrees they came to relish and called it lamb. The seal, numbers of which haunt this island, hath been so often mentioned by former 
writers, that it is unnecessary to say anything particular about them in this place. But there is another amphibious creature to be met 
with here, called a sea-lion, that bears some resemblance to a seal, though it is much larger. This, too, we eat under the denomination 
of beef; and as it is so extraordinary an animal, I conceive it well merits a particular description. [This is the southern sea- 
elephant, Macrorhinus leoninus; not the sea-lion, Otaria jiiliata. — H. W. E.] They are in size, when arrived at their full growth, 
from twelve to twenty feet in length, and from eight to fifteen in circumference. They are extremely fat, so that after having 
cut through the skin, which is about an inch in thickness, there is at least a foot of fat, before you can come at either lean or 
bones; and we experienced more than once that the fat of some of the largest afforded us a butt of oil. They are likewise very 
full of blood; for if they are deeply wounded in a dozen places, there will instantly gush oiit as many fountains of blood; spouting 
to a considerable distance; and to try what quantity of blood they contained, we shot one first and then cut its throat, and 
measuring the blood that came from him, we found that beside what remained in the vessels, which, to be sure, was considerable, we got 
at least two hogsheads (!). Their skins are covered with a short hair, of a light dun color, but their tails and their fius, which serve them 
for feet on shore, are almost black ; their fins, or feet, are divided at the ends like fingers, aud the web which joins them not reaching to 
the extremities, aud each of these fingers is furnished with a nail. They have a distant resemblance to an overgrown seal, though in some 
particulars there is a manifest difference between them, especially in the males; these have a large trunk, or snout, hanging down five or 
six inches below the end of the upper jaw, which the females have not, and this renders the countenance of the male and the female 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 121 



easy to be distinguished from each other, beside the males arc of a much larger size The form and the appearance of both the male and 
the female are very exactlj represented in the nineteenth plate, only the disproportion of their size is not usually so great as is there 
exhibited; forthe male is drawn from life after the largest of these animals, which was found upon the island; he was the master of 
the Qocfc, anil from his driving off the other males and keeping a great number of females to himself, he was by the seamen ludicrously 
styled the bashaw. These animals divide their time equally between the land and sea, continuing at sea till the summer, and coming 
on shore at the' setting in of the winter, where they reside during that whole season. In this interval they engender ami bring forth their 
young, and hare generally two at a birth, which they suckle with their milk, they being at first about the size of a fnll-grown seal. 
During the time these sea-lions continue on shore they feed upon the grass and verdure which grows near the banks of the fresh-water 
streams: and when not employed in feeding, sleep in herds in the most miry places they can find out. As they seem to be of a very 
lethargic disposition, and are not easily awakened, each herd was observed to place some of their males at a distance, in the nature of 
sentinels, who never failed to alarm them whenever any one attempted to molest, or even to approach them; and they were very capable 

of alarming, even at a considerable distance; for the noise they make is very loud and of different kinds, sometimes granting like bogs, 
and at other times snorting like horses in full vigor. They often, especially the males, have furious battles with each other, principally 
about their females : and we were one day extremely surprised at the sight of two animals, which at first appeared different from any 
of all we had observed, but on a nearer approach they proved to he two sea-lions, who had been goring each other with their teeth, ami 
•were covered over with blood; ami the bashaw, above mentioned, who generally lay surrounded with a seraglio of females, which 
no other male dared to approach, had not acquired that envied pre-eminence without many bloody contests, of which the marks still 
remained in the numerous scars which were visible in every part of his body. We killed many of them for food, especially for their hearts 
and tongues, which we esteemed good eating, and preferable even to those of bullocks. In general shape there was no difficulty in killing 
them, for they were incapable either of escaping or of resisting, as their motion is the most unwieldy that can he conceived, their blubber, 
all the time they are moving, being agitated in huge waves under their skins. However, a sailor one day being carelessly employed in 
skinning a young sea-lion, the female from whence he had taken it came upon him unpei'ceived, ami getting his head in her mouth, she 
with her teeth scored his skull in notches iu many places, and thereby wounded Lim so desperately that though all possible care was taken 
of him he died in a few days. 

FEW birds. — These are the principal animals which' we found upon the island, for we saw but few birds, and those chiefly hawks, 
blackbirds, owls, and humming-birds. We saw not the pendella, which burrows in the ground, and which former writers have mentioned 
to he found here; but as we often met with their holes, we supposed that the dogs hail destroyed them, as they have almost done the eats; 
for these were, very numerous in Selkirk's time, but we saw not above one or two during our whole stay. However, the rats still keep 
their ground, and continue here in great numbers, and were very troublesome to us by infesting our tents nightly. 

. ABUXDAXCE OF FISH. — But that which furnished us with the most delicious repasts at this island remains still to be described — this 
was the fish, with which the whole bay was most plentifully stored, and with tin' greatest variety, for we found here cod of a prodigious 
size, and by the report of some of our crew, who hail been formerly employed iu the Newfoundland fishery, not in less plenty than is to be 
met with on the banks of that island. We caught also cavallies, gropars, large breams, maids, silver fish, congers of a peculiar kind — 
above all, a black-fish, which we most esteemed, called by some, a chimney-sweeper, in shape resembling a carp. The beach, indeed, is 
everywhere so full of rocks and loose stones that there is no possibility of hauling the seine; but with hooks and lines we caught what 
numbers we pleased, so that a boat with two or three lines would return loaded with fish in about two or three hours' time. The only 
interruption we ever met with arose from the great quantities of do^-fish and huge sharks which sometimes attended our boats and prevented 
onr sport. Beside the fish we have already mentioned, we found here one delicacy in greater perfection, both as to size and flavor and 
quantity, than is, perhaps, to be met with in any other part of the world; this was sea cray-fish; they generally weighed eight or nine 
pounds apiece, were of a most excellent taste, and lay in such abundance near the water's edgo that the boat-hooks often struck into them 
in putting the boat to and from the shore. 

Strange contrast in sealing-grounds. — Thus ends Chaplain Walter's description of the plants, and the 
animals, and the fish of Juan Fernandez; and I quote him in full, because 1 wish to emphasize the decided difference 
in the temperament and constitution of the northern, or Alaskan, fur-seal from that of its southern relative, which 
seems to have repaired to Juan Fernandez and Masafuera in countless thousands, " millions, " Dampier said, in His;;, 
to breed in a tropical climate, on an island infested by bauds of wild dogs, and the waters surrounding alive with 
"large sharks"! Then, too, that the good prelate should have found fish so abundant: where such multitudes of 
seals were aggregated, seems strange; and it also occurs rather odd to me that he should have rested content with 
Dampiers brief description of the fur-seal here, and passed the matter by, in the abrupt reference which he makes, 
declaring it superfluous to add more than "other writers" have spoken of. 

The rookery or Masafuera: A description of the islet.— The island of Masafuera lies off the coast 
of Chili, in south latitude 33° 4.5', west longitude 80° 40', just west of Juan Fernandez, 93 miles; the surprising 
number of over 480,000 fur-seal skins are said to have been taken from it in a single season, some fifty years or so 
ago. Whether this immense aggregate was slain there or not, it is certain that no one rookery in all the South seas 
was of more importance. It is a high and mountainous volcanic islet, triangularly formed, and about 7 or 8 leagues 
in coast circuit. The general character of the island seems to be very much as I have indicated as characteristic of 
St. George, only that a luxuriant growth of exotic shrubbery is found thereon. On the north side of the island 
is a low point of land upon which the noted far-seal rookery used to exist. •• The seals," Carteret, in 17<i7, 
says, "were so numerous that I verily think if many thousands of them were killed in a night, they would rot be 
missed in the morning; we were obliged to kill a noted number of them, as, when we walked the shore, they were 
continually running against as, making at the same time a most terrible noise. These animals yield excellent train- 
oil, and their hearts and plucks were very good eating, being in taste something like those of a hog, and their skins 
were covered with the finest fur I ever saw of the kind." 7 

Anson's visit to Masafuera. — Lord Anson sent one of his vessels over to Masafuera for the purpose of 
surveying it thoroughly, while he was 1\ ing at Juan Fernandez, refitting, June to September, 1740. Captain .Saunders 
submitted substantially the following report, which Chaplain AY alter indorses as valuable, inasmuch " as upon this 



122 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

occasion the island of Masafuera was more particularly examined than, I dare say, it ever had been before, or, 
perhaps, ever will be again". He gives, in the succeeding language, the sum of the Anson survey: 

The Spaniards have generally mentioned two islands under the name of Juan Fernandez, styling them the greater and the less; the 
greater being that island where we anchored, and the less being the island we are now describing, which, because it is more distant from the 
continent, thoy have distinguished by the name of Masa-Fuera. The Tryal sloop found that it bore from the greater Juan Fernandez W. 
hy S. and was about twenty -two leagues distant. It is a much larger and better spot than has been generally reported; for former writers 
have represented it as a small barren rock, destitute of wood and water, and altogether inaccessible; whereas, our people found it was 
covered with trees, and that there were several flue falls of water pouring down its sides into the sea; they found, too, that there was a 
place where a ship might come to anchor on the north side of it; though, iudeed, the anchorage is inconvenient, for the bank extends but 
a little way, is steep, too, and has very deep water upon it, so that you must come to an anchor very near the shore, and there lie exposed 
to all the winds but a southerly one ; and, beside the inconvenience of the anchorage, there is, also, a reef of rocks running off from the 
eastern point of the island, about two miles in length, though there is little danger to be feared from them, because they arc always to be 
seen by the seas breaking over them. This place has, at present, one advantage beyond the island of Juan Fernandez; for it abounds 
with goats, who, not being accustomed to be disturbed, were nowise shy or apprehensive till they had been frequently fired at. These 
animals reside here in great tranquillity, the Spaniards not having thought the island considerable enough to be frequented by their 
enemies, aud have not, therefore, been solicitous to destroy the provisions upon it; so that no dogs have been hitherto set on shore there. 
Beside the goats, our people found there vast numbers of seals and sea-lions. Aud upon the whole they seemed to imagine that, though 
it was not the most eligible place for a ship to refresh at, yet, in case of necessity, it might afford some sort of shelter, aud prove of 
considerable use, especially to a single ship, etc. 

Neglect of Chili. — Chili has suffered these famous breeding-grounds of Arctoceplialus to be ravaged and 
utterly eliminated; here she had perpetual interests worth many hundreds of thousands of dollars to her 
annually in the way of revenue, had they only been looked after and shielded from that wanton and mercenary 
destruction which has been visited upon them by sealers of all nations between 1800-1840. In 1717 the Spanish 
government revived aud re-established the colony of Juan Fernandez on that island ; but it was in the lapse of a 
few decades almost entirely ruined by an earthquake. During 1810 the Chilians gained their independence, and 
these two islands formed part of their possessions; in 1819 they established a sort of a Botany Bay on Juan 
Fernandez, and have had as many as 500 prisoners there at a time; it was found, however, to be too expensive, 
and when a mutiny, in 1835, placed the island in the hands of the convicts for a brief period, then the prisoners 
were all removed shortly afterward, and the island deserted, and remained so for forty-five or fifty years. At 
the present time the two islands, Fernandez and Masafuera, are leased by a Chilian merchant, who employs all 
the settlers in cutting wood, tending cattle, and, during the season, in sealing; the average catch is about 2,000 
fur-seals annually. 

Value of the Ansonian account just quoted. — The Ansonian description, thus quoted in much detail, 
is one that cannot fail to cause decided comment upon the marked physical differences under which the fur-seal 
thrives in the north on the islets of Bering sea, as Callorhinvs ursinus, or in the south, as Arctoceplialus australis, on 
Masafuera and Juan Fernandez. According to Walter, the size of these two subtropical islands is nearly in accord 
with the area which I found belonging to the Pribylov group; St. Paul being about the same superficial area of Juan 
Fernandez, with outlying rocks and islets alike peculiar to each ; while St. George is a trifle larger, only, than the 
smaller Masafuera, with water bold and abrupt all aronnd about them. 

The subtropical rookeries mere rocky breeding kelps. — The rookery sites of the fur-seal are not 
located by any writer on either island. I should judge from Walter's account that the entire desolate south shore 
of Juan Fernandez was a belt of cliff-bound breeding-grounds, where these animals laid as they do to-day under the 
bluffs on the Great Eastern rookery at St. George ; and to which spot none of the Dampier or Anson voyagers 
resorted. Indeed, from all that I can learn of the physical structure of the islands to which the southern fur-seal 
repaired, the whole area presented suitable for these creatures to breed upon was of this character, save that of the 
Falkland islands; no such ground in general topography as St. Paul being known to the Antarctic, nor is it found 
elsewhere in the Arctic; but St. George is the common type of the southern seal-islands, as it is also typical of the 
entire Aleutian chain and Alaska generally. 

Strange omission of Chaplain Walter.— The one queer thought in my mind relative to this lengthy visit 
of Anson to Juan Fernandez, is that the historian, from whom I have quoted so liberally, should not speak of the 
fur-seal; for, thirty-two years prior to his landing Captain Wood- Rogers, of the "Dnke", a privateer, touched 
here to recruit, and found "Robinson Crusoe" Selkirk in lonely possession; that sailor left with Rogers, February 
12, 1709, aud he gave quite a story of his discovery of the seals, which is related by the captain. Curiously enough, 
according to Selkirk, the time when the fur-seal hauls out to breed on Juan Fernandez is that season of the year 
when Anson was there. Wood-Rogers reports in in as saying, " Toward the end of the month of June these animals 
come on shore to bring forth their young and remain to the end of September, without stirring from the spot and 
without taking any kind of nourishment." (Kerr: Collection of Voyages: vol. xi.) 

Numbers of deadly enemies there: Sharks. — The time of breeding, therefore, is about the same as in 
Bering sea. Also, in this connection, Commodore Byron, who came, in his voyage round the world, to Masafuera 
in 1705, seeking wood and water, says: 

Sunday, April 28, 1765; * * * there was, however, another species of dauger here to which our cork (surf) jackets afforded us no 
defense, for the sea abounded with sharks of an enormous size, which, when they saw a man in the water, would dart into the very surf 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 123 

to seize him. Our people, however, happily escaped them, though they were many times very near; one of them, which was upward of 
20 feel long, came close to one of tho boats that was watering, and having seized a large seal instantly devoured it at a mouthful, and I, 
myself, saw another of about the same size do the same thing under the ship's stern. (Ilawkswortk: Voyages: Loudon, 1773; vol. i, pp. 
87-88.) 

~So oiher mention of seals is made by him here at Masafuera. 

The voyage of Dampier. — Fifty-seven years prior to Chaplain Walter's inspection and description of Juan. 
Ferdandez, Oapt. William Dampier stopped here, also, to wood and to water, and to rally his crew Irom scurvy; 
he was making a "New Voyage Round the World", sailing from England; he passed two weeks there in these 
exercises of recuperation and refitting. The justly celebrated buccaneer delivers himself in this terse strain: 

These r seals] at John Fernando* have fine thick short Furre ; the like I have not taken notice of any where bu1 in these Seas. Hero 
are always thousands, I might possibly say millions of them, either sitting on the Bays, or goiug and coming in the sea round the Island, 
which is full of them (as they lie at the top of the Water playing and sunning themselves) for a mile or two from the shore. When they 
come out from the Sea they bleat like Sheep for their young; and though they pass through hundreds of other's young ones before they 
come to their own, yet they will not sutler any of them to suck. The young ones are like Puppies and lie much ashore, but when beaten 
by any of us, they as well as the old ones will make toward the Sea, and swim very swift and nimble; though on shore they lie very 
sluggishly, and will not go out of our way unless we heat them, hut snap at us. A blow on the Nose soon kills them. Large Ships might 
here load themselves with Seal Skins and Tranc oyl; for they are extraordinary fat. (Dampier: -J Xew Voyage Round the World, lb'83; vth 
edition, revised, 1703 ; vol. i, pp. 88, 90.) 

Dampier, not Cook, first to note tiie fur seal. — This account of Dampier will be instantly recognized, 
as far as he speaks of their habits, as an exact portrait of a breeding-rookery of the fur-seal. It is painfully brief, 
however; but it antedates Steller's contribution to the life and habits of the Callorhinus some CO years; and is 
a hundred years nearly iu advance of Captain Cook's mention of the same subject on the South Georgian (1771) and 
the Falkland islands (1774). He, therefore, and not Cook, deserves the credit of being the first man to call the 
attention of the civilized world to the value and the numbers of the fur-seal as it existed in southern waters, while 
Steller enjoys the same reputation with respect to those of the north.* 

But, after searching through scores of antique traveler's volumes, and reading the musty records through and 
through — after extended personal intercourse with several of the very men who were active in fur-sealing throughout 
the Antarctic forty years ago, I have nothing but a mass of disjointed and conflicting data to show as to the real 
number of fur-seals slain in the waters south of the equator ; while the record made by these men of the life and 
habit of Arctocephaliis australis is that odd medley of fact and fiction, which destroys the value of the one and the 
romance of the other. 

The Falkland islands: Their discovert. — Captain John Davies, an Englishman, and a companion of Sir 
Thomas Cavendish, who made a privateersman's voyage to the South seas in 1592, was the first person who saw 
the Falkland islands. Iu 1594, Sir Richard Hawkins landed upon them and called them in honor of his queen and 
himself, "Hawkins' Maiden-land"; he said nothing about seals. In 1598 they were seen by a Dutch squadron, 
Verhagen, and Sebnld de Wert commanding ; they touched, and, ignorant of prior discovery, named them " Sebald's 
islands". Captain William Dampier, an Englishman, nearly 100 years after, iu 10S0, visited them aud styled them 
"Sibbet de Wards"; he does not speak of seals there. They were finally called the Falkland islands by Strong, an 
English navigator in 1089; the manuscript journal of Strong yet remains unpublished and filed away in the archives 
of the British Museum. Captain Cook's emphatic mention of the fur-seal at South Georgia in 1771 gradually drew 
the attention of far-sealers to a focus, when, from 1801 to 1840, iuclusive, the whole Antarctic sealing-groutid whs 
ravaged by them, aud the Falkland islands were the head center of all their operations. Great Britain took 
immediate jurisdiction, for the first time, over the Falkland islands in 1833. 

Extraordinary absknce of sealing data. — Such, in brief, are the circumstances that attended the early 
discovery of these celebrated Falkland islands, which were the rendezvous of a large sealing-fieet for a period of 
nearly 30 years — 1800 to 1826, inclusive; yet, in spite of it, I can find little or no evidence of the extent of the 
catch thereon, or of the general location of the vast rookeries known to be slaughtered here during that extended 

* William Dampier was the boldest and clearest-headed navigator, of all who then sailed into unknown seas. He discovered 
Australia a century before Cook saw it, cruising at that time as a buccaneer; his narrative gave Defoe, the idea and supplied the incidents 
of "Robinson Crusoe", on Juan Fernandez; and there is no question in ray mind that he possessed those qualities which distinguished 
Captain Cook, to the fullest extent ; he only lacked the power of the government behind him, to have made a much earlier record, and 
entirely as meritorious as is the one which Cook left for posterity. 

Although Dampier gives the first sensible aud positive description of the fur-seal that I can find, yet there is one reference to this 
animal much earlier; but it requires the reading of an expert to notice that it arose from the sight of a fur-seal. It is found in the account 
of Henry Braiier, or Brewer, who, in behalf of the Dutch West India Company, landed on the coast of States Land, 9th March, HM2, en 
route to Chili. Here, at Valentine's bay, he "saw among the rocks several sea-lions and sea-dogs, about the bigness of a good European 
calf; some of a grayish, some of a brownish color, making a noise not unlike our sheep, and at tin- approach of our men they betook 
themselves to the sea." [Churchill: Voyages: London, 1700: vol. i, p. 45t>.] As the fur-seal is the only one of its family that makes a 
"noise not unlike our sheep", there is no question that Henry Brewer saw a number of female Arclocephalus australis, in especial; though 
males were along, they being so much larger, be deemed different, and termed them sea-lions 

Juan Fernandez, the Spanish navigator and adventurer, who, in 15(j3-'ti7, discovered, pre-euipted, and colonized the island of hLs 
name, died there iu 1575, or thereabouts; with his decease, the settlement was abandoned. He, probably, was the first of all civilized 
men to really kuow what a fur-seal was ; but he has left no record, to my knowledge, of the fact. 



124 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

interval. If these islands had been far beyond the track of commerce, as are all the other Antarctic sealing- grounds, 
save Jnau Fernandez, then the remarkable, surprising want of data in this respect would not be so marked a feature 
to the history of the subject. The Falkland islands have not only been a common port of entry and departure 
for vessels of all nations since their discovery, in 1594, but as far back as 1770 they were a bone of contention and 
long-sustained diplomatic overtures between Spain aud Great Britain, which came very near to plunging both 
countries into war ou their sole account. I will recite the history of this disturbance, because its solution was the 
direct residt of our losing possession of Vancouver's island aud all that British Columbian territory to-day south of 
54° 40' north latitude — a fur-sealing quarrel at the outset originated the whole difficulty. 

Troubles here which caused us the loss of Vancouver's island. — The piratical cruise of Sir Francis 
Drake in 1577, followed by that of Thomas Candisb, or Cavendish, and John Davies, in 1592, whereby the Spauish 
settlements and galleons on the west coasts of the American continent were literally ravished, aroused the 
Castilians to a sense of their future danger, and they began rather slowly to provide means of shelter and future 
support. In prosecution of this plan for protecting the Spauish settlements and commerce of America, Francisco 
Bucareli, the governor of Buenos Ayres. on the 10th of June, 1770, forcibly expelled the handful of British "sealers" 
from their little establishment, Port Egmont, on the Falkland islands. As soon as the news of this expulsion 
reached London, the English secretary of state, lord Weymouth, addressed, September 12, a demand to the court 
at Madrid for the immediate disavowal, on its part, of the acts of Bucareli, and called for the prompt and 
unconditional restitution of the islands in the condition which they were before the writs of removal were executed. 
War was imminent, but Louis XV, of France, tendered his good offices as a mediator between the two disputants. 
The Spanish government acceded to this and placed the entire settlement of the controversy in the hands of the 
kiug of France, for his disposition as he should consider proper for the honor and rights of Spain. On the 22d of 
January, 1771, the offers of the king of France were accepted by the court of St. James. Ou this day the Spanish 
ambassador at London, Prince Masserano, presented to lord Pochford a declaration in the name of the king of 
Spain, saying that his Catholic majesty, solely desirous of maintaining peace with England, disavowed the acts of 
violence committed by the governor of Buenos Ayres, and engaged to restore to his Britannic majesty and his 
subjects "the port and fort at Egmont, in the Falkland islands, with all the artillery, stores, and effects, precisely" 
as they were before the 10th of June, 1770; at the same time, however, this offer of restitution contained the 
following significant clause : " this contract cannot, nor will it in any way, affect the question of prior right of 
sovereignty to the Falkland islands." 

The treaty of Nootka influenced here. — The expelled Falkland islanders were then replaced at port 
Egmont; but, in 1774, they were abruptly withdrawn by order of their own government, and these islands were 
again taken possession of by the Spaniards, who retained their hold until South America became independent. 
This abandonment of Great Britain provoked the bitterest political debates in Parliament, aud feeling ran high all 
over that country; deeply imbued with this sentiment, Vancouver went out, in 1791, specially charged by the 
English government to take possession of the British territory on the northwest coast, according to the articles of the 
treaty of 1790 between Spain aud England, and came to that region in the following year. The Spaniards claimed 
Vancouver's island then, in their own right, and in behalf of the Americans, captains Gray and Kendrick; their 
agent, Senor Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, was stationed at Nootka sound; and immediately after 
Vancouver's arrival, August 12, 1792, the negotiations were commenced, but Quadra could do nothing in behalf of 
their rights and those of American discovery. Vancouver peremptorily refused to entertain the subject. Quadra 
therefore surrendered "Quadra and Vancouver's island" to him, under protest, and withdrew every sign of Spauish 
authority from these waters of the North Pacific. 

Thus the disturbances which ai'ose over the abandonment of the Falkland islands in 1774, worked the loss of 
that northwest territory to us, through Spain, in 1792. My only regret (after an extended personal residence on 
Vancouver's island), concerning this whole subject, is that, out of all the uproar at the Falklands, nothing definite 
has been placed on record relative to the numbers and disposition of the fur-seal thereon. 

25. CATALOGUE OF THE MAMMALS OF THE PEIBTLOV GROTTP. 

[Memoranda of collections made by Henry W. Elliott: Pribylov Islands: 1872 to 1876, inclusive.] 

CANID.E : 
Vulpes lagopus. Blue or Arctic Fox. Common. 

Blue foxes were also, and are, natives of the Commander islands. Steller describes their fearlessness when the 
shipwrecked crew of the St. Peter landed there, 6th November, 1741. I saw them also at St. Matthew island. 

In regard to these foxes the Pribylov natives declare that when the islands were first occupied by their 
ancestors, 1786-'S7, the fur was invariably blue; that the present smoky blue, or ashy indigo color, is due to the 
coming of white foxes across on the ice from the mainland to the eastward. The white-furred vulpes is quite 
numerous on the islands to-day. 1 should judge that perhaps one-fifth of the whole number were of this color; 
they do not live apart from the blue ones, but evidently breed "in and in". I notice that Veniamiuov, also, 



Plate XXVII. 



Monograph— SEAL-ISLANDS. 








THE CURIOUS SHAG. NATIVES OVER THE CLIFFS. 

OOLOGICAL SKETCHES ON ST. GEORGE, BY THE AUTHOR. 



Herewith presented through the courtesy of Harper Brothers. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 125 

makes substantially the same statement; only differing' by charging this deterioration of the blue foxes' fur to the 
deportation from outside of red ones, on ice-floes; aud adds that the natives always hunted down these "krassnie 
peeschee" as soon as their presence was known; hence my inability, perhaps, to see any sign of their posterity in 
1872-'76. 

The presence of these animals on the Tribylov islands is a real source of happiness to the natives, especially 
so to the younger ones. The little pup-foxes make pets aud playfellows for the children, while hunting the adults 
during the winter gives wholesome employment to the mind and body of the native who does so. They are trapped 
in common dead-falls, steel spring-clips, or beaver traps, aud shot. A very large portion of the gossip on the 
island is in relation to this busiuess. 

PINNIPEDIA; 

Callorhinus ursinus. Fur-seal. Abundant. 
Eumetopias Stelleri. Sea-lion. Common. 
Phoca vrtulina. Hair-seal. A few only. 

While the Phocidw are so scant as to number and variety in the waters of the North Pacific and Bering sea, yet 
they fairly rival the myriads of the fur-seal here by their presence iu the waters of the North Atlantic ; and, also, their 
surprising aggregate in the Caspian sea. So great is the volume of hair-seal life iu the circumboreal region of the 
( hicnt, that the astonishing sum of from S50,000 to 900,000 Phocidce are annually taken there ! and from the Caspian 
sea an additional count of a yearly average of 130,000, making a round million of these animals slaughtered every 
season. At least, such are the data which we find in the writings of the only credible authorities known, viz, 
Bounycaslle, Newfoundland, iu 1842, vol. 1, p. 159; Carroll, Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, 1873, p. 0; 
Lindeman, Pet. Geogr. Mitth., pp. vi, 118; Die Arktische Fischerei tier Deutsclien Seestadte, 1620-1868; Brown, Man. 
Nat. Hist. Oeol, etc., of Greenland, 1808-187.3; Melsoin, Pet. Geogr. Mitth., 1809, p. 81; Petersen, Pet. Geogr. Mitth., 
1870, pp. I''! et scq., 1871, pp. 35 et scq.; Loveuskiold, Land and Water (newspaper), 1875, p. 100; Schultz, Rep. U. 
S. Com. Fish and Fisheries, pt. iii, for 1873-74: and 1874-'75 (a translation of the original published at St. Petersburg 
iu 1873). Allen, in his History A. A. Pinnipeds, has so liberally compiled aud quoted from these authors that it 
would be simply superfluous service to reprint those records here. 

Odobsenus obesus, var. reotipennis. Walrus. A few ouly. 

CETACEA: 
Orca gladiator. Killer-whales. A few only. 
Megaptera versabilis. Humpback whales. A few only. 

R0DENTIA: 

Myodes obensis. Lemming. Abundant on St. George only. 

Mus musculus. LLouse mouse. Common in the villages (imported by man). 

20. CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OF THE PEIBYLOV GEOUP. 

Vast numbers of water-fowl. — In the seasons of 1872-'73, respectively, throughout the ornithological 
breeding terms on St. Paul aud St. George, I neglected no opportunities, as they occurred, to secure everything 
that was peculiar to the feathered life upon these islands. The dreary expanse and lonely solitudes of the North 
owe their chief enlivenmeut, and their principal attractiveness for man, to the presence of the vast flocks of' 
circumboreal water-fowl, which repair thither annually. It is true that the mammaliau life of the Pribylov group 
renders its immense aggregate of avifauna insignificant by comparison; but to the naturalist and many who are 
not technically versed, the following check-list of those species which I found there, together with a brief biography 
accompanying each title, may be of more than passing interest. 

While a few species of water-fowl come to these islands in myriads for the purpose of breeding, it will be 
noticed that the list of names met with here is a brief one; still it is of much value to the naturalist, inasmuch as it 
comprises so many desiderata scarcely to be obtained elsewhere. 

The immense rookeries of St. George. — Over fifteen miles of the bold, basaltic, bluff line of St. George 
island is fairly covered with nesting gulls, Rissa, and "arries", Uria, while down intbe countless chinks and holes 
over the entire surface of the north side of this island millions of " choochkies", Simorhyncus pusillus, breed, filling 
the air and darkening the light of day with their cries and fluttering forms, (hi Walrus islet the nests of the great 
white gull of the north, Larus glaueus, can be visited and inspected, as well as those of the sea-parrot or puffin, 
Fratercula, sp., shags or cormorants, Graculus sp., and the red-legged kittiwake, Lurus brevirostris. These birds are 
accessible ou every side, can be reached, and afford the observer an unequaled opportunity of taking due notice 
of them through their breeding-season, as it begins in May and continues until the end of September. 

Economic value to inhabitants. — Not one of the water-birds found on and around the islands is exempted 
from a place in the native's larder; even the delectable "oreeUe" are unhesitatingly eateu by the people, and indeed 



126 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

these birds furnish, during the winter season in especial, an almost certain source of supply for fresh meat. 
But the heart of the Aleut swells to its greatest gastronomic happiness when he can repair, in the months of June 
and July, to the basaltic cliffs of St. George, or the lava table bed of Walrus islet, and put his grimy hands on the 
gaily colored eggs of the "arrie", Lomvia ana; and if he were not the most improvident of men, instead of taking 
only enough for the day, he would lay up a great store for the morrow, but he never does. On the occasion of oue 
visit, and my first one there, July 5, 1872, six men loaded a badarrah at Walrus islet, capable of carrying four tons 
exclusive of our crew, down to the water's edge with eggs, in less than three working hours. 

Disappearance of bieds in winter.— During the winter months the birds are almost wholly absent, 
especially if the ice shall have closed in around about the islands; then there is nothing of the feathered kind save 
the stupid shag, Gracuhis bicristatus, as it clings to the leeward cliffs, or the great burgomaster gull, which sweeps 
in circling flight high overhead; but, early in May they begin to make their appearauce; and they come up from 
the sea overnight, as it were, their chattering and their harsh caroling wakes the natives from their slothful, 
sleeping, which, however, they gladly break, to seize their nets and live life anew, as far as eating is concerned, 
The stress of severe weather in the winter months, the driving of the snow "boorgas'', and the floating ice-floes 
closing in to shut out the open water, are cause enough for the disappearance of the water -fowl during the hyemal 
season.* 

Castaway birds on the Pribyloy islands. — The position of the islands is such as to be somewhat outside 
of the migratory path pursued by the birds on the mainland; and, owing to this reason, they are only visited by a 
few stragglers from that quarter, a few from the Asiatic side, and by the millions of their own home-bred and 
indigenous stock. One of these migratory species, Strepsilas interpres, however, comes here every summer for 
three or four weeks' stay, in great numbers, and actually get so fat, in feeding upon the larvte which abound in the 
decaying carcasses over the killing-grounds, that it usually bursts open when it falls, shot on the wing. A heavy 
easterly gale often brings a strange bird to the islands from the mainland; a grebe, Podiceps griseigena, was 
stranded on St. George in 1873, whereupon the natives declared the like of which they had never seen before ; when 
1 found a robin one cool morning in October, the 15th, the natives told me that it was an accident — brought over 
by some storm or gale of wind that took it up and off from its path across the tundra of Bristol bay. The next fair 
wind sweeping from the north or the west could be so improved by this robin, Tusdus migratoriw, that it would 
spread its wings and as abruptly return. Thus hawks, owls, and a number of foreign water-fowls visit the islands, 
but never remain there long. 

Faiiatre to introduce rayens. — The Russians tried the experiment of bringing up from Sitka and 
Oonalashka a number of ravens as scavengers, a number of years ago, and when they were very uucleanly in the 
Aillage, in contrast with the practice of the present hour; they reasoned that they would — these ill-omened birds — 
be invaluable as health officers; but the Corrida' invariably, sooner or later, and within a very short time, took 
the first wind-train back to the mainland or the Aleutian islauds ; yet the natives say that if the birds had been 
young ones instead of old fellows, they would have remained. I saw a great many, however, at St. Matthew island, 
in August, 1874; also, their slowly -marked flight overhead was a common sight on St. Lawrence. 

Poultry kept by natives. — The natives keep a small number of chickens, and often they take their poultry 
into their living rooms and coop them up in the corners; they get return in eggs ; but of all the forlorn, wretched, 
bedraggled specimens of domestic fowls, those that have to shiver and shake themselves outside when viewed 
on the seal-islands are the most miserable. They do not exactly freeze, but the raw, damp, incessant violence of 
the weather keeps them inactive and cowering for such long, unbroken periods that their feathers seem to fall out, 
and disease marks them for its own. 

Oologlcal wealth op Walrus island. — I am much divided in my admiration of the two great bird- 
rookeries of the Pribylov group, the one on the face of the high bluffs at St. George, and the other on the table-top 
of Walrus islet ; but, perhaps, the latter place gives, within the smallest area, the greatest variety of nesting and 

* While daily served on St. George, during June and July, with eggs of indigenous sea-fowl, I recorded my gastronomic comparisons 
which occurred then as I ate them. Here follows a recapitulation : 

Fresh-laid eggs of "lupus," or F.glacialis.. Best eggs known to the islands; can be soft-boiled or fried, and are as good as our own 

hens' eggs; the yolk is light and clear; the size thereof is in shape and bulk like a duck's 
egg; it has a white shell. Season: June 1 to 15, inclusive; scarce on St. Paul and not 
abundant on St. George. 

Fresh -laid eggs of " arrie," or L. arm Very good; can be soft-boiled or fried; are best scrambled ; yolks are dark; no strange taste 

■whatever to them; pyriform in shape; large as a goose egg; shell gaily colored; they are 
exceedingly abundant on Walrus island and St. George ; tons of them. Season : June 25 
to July 10, inclusive. 

Fresh-laid eggs of gulls; Lariclw Perceptibly strong; cannot be relished unless in omelettes; yolks very dark; size and shape of 

our hen's egg; shell dark, clay-colored ground, mottled. Season: June 5 to July 20, 

inclusive; they are in moderate supply only. 

The other eggs in the list, such as those of the "choochkie", the "shag", and the several varieties of water-fowl which breed here, 

are never secured in sufficient quantity to be of any consideration as articles of diet. It is, perha^is, better that the scarcity of their kind 

continue, judging from the strong smack of the choochkie's, the repulsive taint of the shag's, and the "twang" of the sea-parrot's, all of 

which I tasted as a matter of investigation 



Plate XXVIT1. 



Monograph— SEAL-ISLANDS. 




cleopatra;s needle. 
(St. Lawrence Island.) 



NO ROOM FOR ARGUMENT. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES ON THE SEAL-ISLANDS, BY THE AUTHOR. 

Herewith presented through the courtesy of Harper Brothers. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 127 

breeding birds; for here tbe " arrie" and many gulls, cormorants, sea-parrots, and auks come to lay tbeir eggs in 
countless numbers. The foot and brow of the low, cliff-like sea fronts to this island are occupied almost exclusively 
by the " arries ", Lomvia nrrtt, which lay a single egg, each, on the surface of the bare rock, and stand, just like 
so many champagne bottles, straddling over them while hatching; only leaving at irregular intervals to feed, and 
then not until their mates relieve them. Hundreds of thousands of these birds, alone, are thus engaged about the 
29th of every June, on this little rocky island, standing stacked up together as tight as so many sardines in a box — 
as thickly as they can be stowed — each of them uttering an incessant, dee]), low, hoarse, grunting noise, flow 
fiercely they quarrel among themselves — everlastingly; and in this way thousands of eggs are rolled off into the 
sea, or into crevices, or into fissures, where they are lost and broken. 

Toughness of arrie eggshells. — The "arrie" lays but one egg. If it is removed or broken she will 
soon lay another; but, if undisturbed alter depositing the first, she undertakes its hatching at once. The size, 
shape, and coloration of this egg, among the thousands which came under my observation, are exceedingly variable. 
A large proportion of the eggs become so dirty, by rolling here and there in the guano while the birds tread and fight 
over them, as to be almost unrecognizable. I was struck by the happy adaptation of nature to their rough nesting; 
it is found in the toughness of the shell of the egg — so tough that the natives, when gathering them, throw them as 
farmers do apples into their tubs and baskets, on the cliffs, and then carry them down to the general heap of 
collection near the boats' landing, where they pour them out upon the rocks with a single flip of the hand, just as 
a sack of potatoes would be emptied; and then again, after this, they are quite as carelessly handled when loaded 
into the " bidarrah", sustaining through it all a very trifliug loss from crushed or broken ones. 

Bird zones on Walrus islet. — Those "arries" seem to occupy a ribbon in width, and draw around the 
outward edges of the flat table-top to Walrus island a regular belt, keeping all to themselves; while the small 
grassy interior from which they are thus excluded is the only place, I believe, in Bering sea where the great white 
gull, Lants glaucus, breeds. Here I found among the little mossy tussocks the burgomaster building a nest of 
dry grass, sea ferns, Sertularidas, etc., very nicely laid up and rounded, and in which it laid usually three eggs, 
sometimes only a couple; occasionally I would look into a nest with four. These big birds could not breed on 
either of the other islands in this manner, for the glaucous gull is too large to settle on the narrow shelf Ledges of 
the cliffs, as the smaller LaridcB and other water-fowls do; and those places which would receive it might also be a 
bunting-ground and footing to the foxes. 

The red-legged Uittiwake, Larus irevirostris, and its cousin, Lants tridactylus, build in tbe most amicable 
manner together on the faces of the cliffs, for they are little gulls, and they associate with the cormorants, sea- 
parrots, and auks, all together; and, with the exception of the latter, the nests are very easy of access. All birds, 
especially the "arries' 1 , have an exceedingly happy time of it on this Walrus islet — nothing to disturb them, in my 
opinion — free from the ravenous maw of the foxes over at St. Paul, and from the piratical and death-dealing 
sweep of owls and hawks, which infest the Aleutian chain and the mainland. 

Systematic list op the avipauna. — I will now offer, in natural sequence, a list of the names which are 
to be seen every year upon the ornithological register of the Pribylov islands, and the transient ones, also : 

1. Turdus migratorius. Robin; "Rap-o-loof." 

Casual, and rarely seen ; never resident. Specimen secured October, 1872. 

2. Anorthura troglodytes var. alascensis. Alaskan Wintbb Wisest; "Lim.mer-siiin." 

This wee bird is not migratory, but remains permanently upon St. George ; its uest is built in small, deep holes 
and crevices of the cliffs. I have not myself seen it, but the natives say that it lays from eight to ten eggs in a 
nest made of dry grass and feathers, roofed over, with an entrance at the side to the nest-chamber, being thus 
elaborately constructed. 

The male is exceedingly gay during the period of mating and incubation, flying incessantly from plant to 
plant, or from rock to rock, and singing a rather loud song for a small bird. I shot the young, fully fledged, on the 
28th of July; it differed only from the parent in having a much shorter bill, and a darker and more diffuse 
coloration. Although St. Paul island is but twenty-seven miles to the northwest, as the crow flies, from St. George, 
not a single specimen of this little wren has been seen there. I made, during the whole season of 1872, unavailing 
search for it. 

The natives' name, "limmer-shin," signifies a chew of tobacco; and, as the bird is not as large as some quids 
which I have seen, the name is quite appropriate, for the dull brown and black plumage of the bird suggests it also. 

3. Leuoosticte tephrocotis var. griseinucha. Gray-eared Finch; "Paiitosiikie. ' 

This agreeable little bird, always cheerful and self-possessed, is a regular and permanent settler on the islands, 
which it never leaves. In the depth of dismal winter, as well as in the halo of a summer's day, the pahtoshkio 
greets you with the same pleasant chirrup, wearing the same neat dress, as if determined to make the best of 
everything. It is particularly abundant on St. George, where its habit may be studied to great advantage. The 
pahtosbkie nests in a chink or crevice of the cliffs, building a warm, snug home for its little ones, of dried grasses 
and moss, very neatly put together, and then lined with a few superfluous feathers. The eggs vary in number from 



128 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

three to six; there generally is four. They are pure white with a delicate rosy blush, when fresh, and measure 
0.97 by 0.G7 of an inch. The young break the shell at the expiration of twenty or twenty-two days' incubation, the 
labor of which is not shared by the male; he, however, brings food to his mate, singing as most birds do of his 
kind, highly elated by the prospects of paternity. The chicks, at first, are sparsely covered with a sprinkling of 
dark-gray down, and in two or three weeks gain their feathers, fitting them for flight, though they do not acquire 
the ash and black of the head, while the chocolate-brown on the back is rich, and the rosy tints of their feather-tips 
turn to crimson. These bright hues of adolescence do not appear until they are one year old; between the old 
birds, however, there is no outward dissimilarity in .size or coloration, the male and female being exactly alike. 
They feed upon various seeds and insects, as well as the larva; which swarm on the killing-grounds. They are 
fearless and confiding, fluttering in the most familiar manner around the village huts. In the summer of 1873 a 
pair built their nest and reared a brood under the eaves of the old Greek church, that tottered on its rotten 
foundations, at St. George. It has no song, but utters a low, mellow chirp, sounding this note both flying and 
sitting, in the same cadeuce. It seems to pair off altogether aud uever reassembles in flocks. I secured a large 
number of beautiful specimens of the adults of both sexes in neat breeding attire, and others illustrating the 
earUest plumage of the young. 

4. Fleotrophanes nivalis. Snow Bunting ; " Snaguiskie." 

The snow-bird is another permanent resident of these islands, but one which, unlike the pahtoshkie, you will 
notice, is very shy aud retiring, nesting high on the rocky, broken uplands, never coming down to the village, 
except during unusually 7 severe or protracted cold weather. Tbis bird builds an elegant and elaborate nest of soft, 
dry 7 moss and grass, and lines it warmly again with a thick bed of feathers. It is placed on the ground beneath some 
heavy lava-shelf or at the foot of an enormous bowlder. Five eggs are usually laid, about the 1st of June ; they 
are an inch long by two-thirds broad, of a grayish or greenish white, spotted sometimes all over, sometimes at or 
around the larger end ouly T , with various shades of rich dark-brown, purplish-brown, and paler neutral tints. 
Sometimes the whole surface is quite closely clouded with diffuse reddish-brown markings. Upon the female the 
entire labor of the three weeks' incubation required for the hatching of her brood devolves. During this period the 
male is assiduous in bringing food; and at frequent intervals sings his simple but sweet song, rising, as he begins 
it, high up in the air, as the skylark does, and at the end of the strain drops suddenly to the ground again. The 
young are early provided with a gray, downy coating, which is speedily replaced by one resembling that of the 
adult female; and, in less than four weeks from the date of hatching, the little "snaguiskie" is as big as its parents 
and weighs more. The food of this species consists of the various seeds and insects peculiar to the rough, higher 
grounds it frequents, being especially 7 fond of the small coleopterous beetles found on the island. It never flies 
about the rocks here, and cannot be called at any season of the year gregarious, like its immediate relative, the 
Lapland lougspur, with which it is associated on these sea-girt islets. 

5. Flectrophanes lapponicus. Lapland Longspuk; " Karesch-navie snaguiskie." 

This bird is the vocalist par excellence of the Pribylov group, singing all through the month of June in the 
most exquisite manner, rising high in the air and hovering on fluttering wings over its sitting mate. The song is 
so sweet that it is always too short, though it lasts a few moments, with brief intervals only. This songster is much 
more shy and reserved than the common snow 7 -bunting ; and it rarely enters the village. It is most abundant on 
St. Paul island, where, unlike the snowflake, it seeks the low, grassy grounds, both for food and resting, being 
never found among the rough bowlders chosen for a home \>j the other Plectrophanes. The two nests, which I found, 
were built in tussocks of grass on the low, hummocky flat between the village and the main ridge of St. George, 
sheltered and half concealed beneath a drapery of withered grass. In each case the mother -bird did not fly aw ; ay 
till I almost stepped upon her nest, when she quickly fluttered off and disappeared in perfect silence. Those nests 
and females in breeding dress were the first of their kind to arrive at the Smithsonian collection. One nest 
contained four and the other five eggs, rather smaller than the snow-bunting, and of a rich, gray -brown color, with 
deep shades of brown running over them in spots aud suffused lines. These examples were not discovered until the 
7th of July, at which date the eggs in both were perfectly fresh. They were, probably, not laid until about the end 
of June. The young appear in the same manner as those of P. nivalis. The males do not assume the distinctive 
coloration of their sex until the next season. The natives say that very severe weather sometimes drives the 
lougspur away, although the other relative, the snow-buntiug, is never forced to leave. 

6. Corvus corax. Raven; "Var-rone." , 

As I have remarked in my general introduction, the experiment of introducing ravens was unsuccessfully tried 
by the Eussians, but the natives still claim that if a number of young birds were brought here and raised, they 
could be induced to remain upon the islands during the whole season. They say that the failure to keep those birds 
brought up from Oonalashka, on several occasions prior, was due to the fact of their being old birds. 

7. Falco sacer. Gyrfalcon. 

The specimen of this bird, in my collection, was evidently stranded and forced out of its usual flight wheu I 
secured it on the Reef point at St. Paul island, March, 1S73. It was the only one that I saw while there. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 129 

8. Charadriua fulvus. GOLDEN Plover. 

The appearance of this .specimen in my collection, was another new item added to the list of North American 
birds, since it is the first American specimen of the true Asiatic fulvus, and not the North American var. VirgvrricM. 
It came to St. Paid as a wanderer on the 2d of May, 1873, and the natives told me that it was a frequent visitor in that 
manner ; a few stragglers landing in April, or the first days of May, and passing on their way north, never 
remaining long. They return in greater number, however, by the close of September, and grow fat upon the larvae 
generated over the killing-grounds, leaving for the south by the end of October. 

9. Strepsilas interpres. Turnstone: "Krass-nie Ko-lit-skie," or "Krassxie Nogie." 

This is a very handsome bird when in full plumage, and arrives in flocks of thousands about the third week in 
July, taking its departure from the islands along by the 10th of September. It does not breed here, and it comes, 
undoubtedly, to feed upon the larvae and maggots of the killing-grounds. It is certainly one of the most attractive 
of plovers, as it struts and marches with bright-red legs and intense black-banded breast, and a back shaded with 
brown and green reflections. I am at a loss to fix its breeding place ; I have met with it at sea 700 miles from 
the nearest land, flying northwest toward the Aleutian islands, my ship being 800 miles west from the straits of Fuca. 

10. Lobipes hyperboreus. Northern Phalarope. 

A few couples breed on the islands, nesting around the margins of the lakelets. The egg I was unable to find, 
but I secured several newly -hatched young ones, which were very interesting little creatures. They are only two 
or three inches long, with bill about a third of an inch in length, and no thicker than an ordinary dressing-pin. 
The down of the head, neck, and upper parts is a rich brownish yellow, variegated with black, the crown being 
of this color mixed with yellow, and a long stripe extends down the back, flanked with one over each hip, and 
another across the rump, and a shoulder spot on each side. The under parts are a grayish, silvery white. The 
old bird, when startled or solicitous for the safety of its young, utters a sonorous "tweet" call, quickly repeated, 
with long intervals of silence between them. 

11. Phalaropus fulicarius. Red Piialarope. 

Though I found this bird very much more abundant than the preceding species at certain times, yet I am 
satisfied that it does not breed here. It is found, like the other, by the marshy margins of the pools and ponds, 
usually solitary, though paired occasionally, but never in flocks. The earliest arrivals occur in June, but the birds 
reappear in greatest number about the 15th of August. They all leave by the 5th of October. 

12. Tringa ptilocnemis. Thick-billed Sand-piper. "Ko-lits-kie." 

The most interesting result, in some respects, of my ornithological work, is the determination by my specimens 
of the occurrence of this species iu abundance on the Pribylov islands, where it breeds. That discovery adds a 
species, previously unrecognized as North American, to our fauna. As a long, elaborate, and graphic description of 
the bird, based upon my collections, was made by Dr. Elliott Cones,* when he reviewed my labor on these islands, 
I shall not duplicate it here; but I wish to give him credit for his prompt recognition of the novelty; and in this 
connection let me add, that in 1874 I saw it just as abundantly on St. Matthew island. I should say, it is the only 
wader that incubates on the Pribylov islands, with the marked exception of a stray couple now and then of Phalaropus 
hyperboreus. It makes its appearance early in May, and repairs to the dry uplands and mossy hummocks, where it 
breeds. The uest is formed by the selection of a particular cryptogamic bunch, and there setting. It lays four 
darkly-blotched pyriform eggs, and hatches them within twenty days. The young come from the shell in a thick, 
yellowish down, with dark brown markings on the head and back, getting the plumage of their parents and taking 
to wing as early as the 10th of August ; at this season old and young flock together for the first time, and confine 
themselves to the sand-beaches and surf-margins about the islands for a few weeks, when they take flight by the 1st or 
5th of September, and disappear until the opening of the new season. It is a most devoted and fearless parent, and 
will flutter in feigned distress around by the hour, uttering a low, piping note, should one approach near to its nest. 
It makes a sound ridiculously like the cry of our tree-frogs, and I searched in consequence unavailingly for several 
weeks, deceived by the call of this bird, for the presence of such a reptile.t 

* Condition of Affairs in Alaska: H. W. Elliott: 1874, p. 182. 

tWhen I was collecting tins bird, I took it to be a well-defined Tringa maritima ; and did not suppose for an instant, that it was an 
undescribed species to the avifauna of both the old world and the new. Had I thought seriously of it, however, I might have had my 
suspicions aroused then, and hence given it still more attention, so that my large series of specimens might have embraced the autumn or 
perfected fall plumage ; and, I would also have secured many nests, rather than the single one which I did get. My old friend, Dr. Elliott 
Coues, was the first to discover the originality of this new sand-piper, though he was very closely followed by that excellent authority on 
Limicoline birds, J. E. Harting, F. L. S., etc., of London, to whom Professor Baird sent one of my specimens of 1872, also, thinking it to 
be T. maritima. A curious fact, however, is the remarkably restricted range which this strongly-built bird enjoys in Alaska ; it has been 
seen nowhere except on these Pribylov islands and on St. Matthew, 200 miles to the north of them; where, in 1874, I saw large numbers, 
breeding as they do here. I did not see one on St. Lawrence, again to the northward, 1«0 miles from St. Matthew island, and it his 
never been detected on the mainland, or the islands of the Aleutian chain, the peninsula, or northwest coast, inclusive, although that 
country has been scoured over thoroughly by naturalists aud collectors during the last fifteen years; therefore unless it is found and 
winters on the large islands of the Commander group, 700 miles to the westward of the Prilylovs, 1 believe that its restriction as above 
defined is only paralleled by the square mile limit of distribution peculiar to several species of South American humming birds. 



130 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

13. Limosa uropygialis. White-rumped Godwit. 

This wader is a mere chance visitor, never breeding here. It comes in a straggling manner, early in May, and 
passes northward over tbe islands, hardlv stopping on the way. It reappears, toward the end of August, going 
south, in flocks of a dozen to fifty, making then, as before, scarcely an appreciable visit. 

14. Heteroscelus incanus. Wandering Tattler. 

This bird is also migratory, and does not breed here. It comes every year early in June, and subsequently 
reappears toward the end of July, when I again observed it. It may be obtained on the rocky beaches, where it 
flits at the surf-wash, shy and quiet. 

15. Numenius borealis. Eskimo Curlew. 

I never saw but the single specimen, which I shot and preserved, on the seal-islands while up there ; but the 
natives assured me that some years, and quite often, it appears in large flocks during the fall. This one was 
procured by me in June, 1872, on St. Paul island. 

16. Philacte canagica. Emperor Goose. 

This goose of the great Yukon river gets over here by mistake, I fancy, for the flock of which I witnessed 
the capture, lauded on St. Paul island so exhausted, that the natives ran the birds down in open chase over the 
grass. I found the flesh of Philacta, contrary to report, free from any unpleasant flavor, and in fact very good. 
The objectionable quality is only skin deep, and may be got rid of by the -least care, when the cook prepares it for 
the table. 

17. Braiita canadensis. White-collared Goose; " Chornie Goose." 

This species, like the former, seems to be a mere straggler and irregular visitor, evidently driven by high winds 
to rest here for a brief period, ere they resume their customary lines of migration along the mainland. 

18. Anas boschas. Mallard Duck. 

A pair of these fine birds bred on the island of St. Paul during the season of 1872, at Polavina lake, and 
several were observed later in the fall. Tbe mallard I also noticed on St. George island, but the natives say it is 
not a regular visitor. 

19. Mareca penelope. Widgeon. 

It is an interesting fact, that this widgeon, as my specimens attest, which visits the Pribylov islands, is not M. 
americana, as might be anticipated, but it is the true M. penelope. I saw only a few specimens, and saw them 
rarely. They were solitary examples, never in pairs, and it does not breed on the islands; apparently the few 
individuals, which I noted during two years of observation, were wind-bound or estray. 

20. Harelda glacialis. Long-Tailed Duck; "Saafka." 

This noisy, chattering example is common and resident. It appears everywhere on the pools, ponds, sloughs, 
and lakes of the two islands; in limited numbers, however. The Saafka is a very lively bird, particularly in the 
spring, when with the breaking up of the ice it flies into the open reaches of water, and raises its peculiar, sonorous 
and reiterated cry of ah-naah-tiadh-yah, which rings cheerfully upon the ear after the silence and desolate dearth of 
an ice-bound winter. 

21. Histrionicus torquatus. Harlequin Duck. 

My experience with this bird is radically different from another writer, he stating that it is an essentially solitary 
species, found alone or in pairs, only in the most retired spots, on the small rivers flowing into the Yukon, where it 
breeds.* It is the most gregarious of all the duck tribe known to these islands; flocks of a hundred, closely bunched 
together, may be found at every turn by the traveler on the coast ; nor is it particularly wild or shy, for every morning 
at St. George, whenever I chose to walk to the water's edge beneath the village, and less than a quarter of a mile 
distant, I could have a shot at fifty or a hundred of these birds, just as I had enjoyed such an opportunity in the early 
dawning previously ; but it is a remarkably silent bird, and from it I never heard any cry whatever during the whole 
year; for it is about the island, unless the ice drives it away, throughout that entire period. It is a very social duck, 
solitary pairs never being seen away from the flock. The females seem to outnumber the males two to one; but, the 
strangest thing about it was my total inability, and that of the natives, too— for I offered an inordinate reward— to 
find its eggs or nest. It must breed about here, but whether deep in the rock interstices of the beach shingle, or 
flying by night to the high ridges inland, I am ignorant. 

22. Somateria Stelleri. Steller's Eider. 

From the village hill at St. Paul, in May, 1872, I shot two specimens of this duck, and then not knowing as 
much about the seal-island cats as I speedily learned thereafter, the fresh stuffed specimens were literally torn into 
a thousand fragments by these abominable felines. It is, as I did not see it afterward during my residence on the 
group, a straggler, and nothing more. 

23. Graculus bicristatus. Red-eaced Cormorant; "Oreel." 

As this bird of Pallas is found about the islands during the whole winter as well as the summer, despite the 
weather, perched on the sheltered bluffs, the natives regard it with a species of affection, for it furnishes the only 

"l'rans. Chicago Acad., i, 298. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 131 

supply they can draw upon for fresh meat, soups, and stews, always wanted by the sick; and, were these shags 
sought after throughout the year near as diligently as they are during the long spell of bitter temperature thatoecura 
here in severe winters, driving other water-fowl away, they certainly would be speedily exterminated ; yet, they are 
seldom shot, however, when anything else can be obtained. The terrible storms in February and March, when the 
wind " boorgas" blow as tornadoes, are unable to drive the shag away, but all other water-fowl, even the big northern 
gulls, depart for the open water south. It comes under the cliffs to make its nest and lay — the earliest of the birds 
in Bering sea. Two eggs were taken from a bed on the reef, St. Paul island, June 1, 1872, nearly hatched, which 
is more than three weeks in advance of the other water-fowls, almost without exception. The nest is large, carefully 
rounded up, and built upon some jutting point or narrow shelf along the face of a cliff or bluff; in its construction 
sea-ferns (Sertularidce), grass, etc., are used, together with a cement made largely of their own excrement. 

The eggs are usually three in number, sometimes four, and, compared with the size of the bird, are exceedingly 
small. They are oval, of a dirty, whitish gray, green, and blue color, but soon become soiled ; for, although this 
bird's plumage is sleek and bright, yet it is very slovenly and filthy about the nest — the dirtiest bird of all the north 
when we regard its domestic economy. The young come from the shell at the expiration of three weeks' incubation, 
without feathers and almost bare, even of down ; they grow, however, rapidly, fed by the old birds, who eject the 
contents of their stomachs, such as small fish, crabs, and shrimps, all over and around the nest. In about six weeks 
the young cormorant can take to its wings, and, strange as it may seem, it is then fully as large and heavy as the 
parents; but it is not until the beginning of its second year that it shimmers out in the bright plumage and metallic 
gloss of the adult, wearing, during the first year of probation, a dull, dingy, drab-brown coat, with the brilliant red 
colors at the base of the bill, and gular sac, subdued. 

This cormorant is a stupid and very inquisitive bird. It utters no sound whatever, except when flying over, 
about, or around a boat or ship, which seems to possess a magnetic power of attraction for them. When they are 
thus hovering and circling aloft in this method, they utter a low, droning croak. It cannot be called a bird ot 
graceful action at any place, either on the wing, in the sea, or perched. Its flight is a quick beating of the wings, 
which are usually more or less ragged at the edge, with the neck and head stretched out full length horizontal to 
the axis of the body. So curious is it, that in flying, around and around again to satisfy itself, it comes close enough 
for an observer, should he stand erect in the bow of a boat, almost to touch it with his hand. It is very dirty on 
the rocks, and does not keep its nest in tidy trim like the gulls ; but, in regard to its plumage, I frankly confess 
that I have sat for long intervals near a shelf whereupon fifteen or twenty of these birds were resting, absorbed in 
true admiration of the brilliant gloss and glittering sheen of their feathers; their coats really scintillate when in the 
sunlight with a confused blending of rich brownish and deep purple reflections, as though clothed in steel armor 
beautifully damascened. 

24. Diomedea brachyura. Shout-tailed Albatross. 

This bird was the only real suggestion which arose to my mind, during my sojourn on the Pribylovs, of the 
past epoch of noted activity in the whale fisheries of the Xorth Pacific and the Arctic; for, as I first discerned the 
large bulk and spread of the albatross prior to shooting, the natives clapped their hands and said, "You should 
have been here twenty years ago when, instead of this solitary example, you would have seen thousands." They 
came with the whalers, and disappeared, as they had done; but, as if prompted by legends among their kind, now 
and then an adventurous one comes north again and looks in vain for its whale food, or the skinned carcasses 
rather, turned adrift by the whalemen; they were in sight of the island constantly, year in and year out, during 
that period of great whaling industry. The bird just cited, and this one only, was a solitary example of its kind 
observed by me. Two hundred miles to the southward, however, it is quite frequent about the Aleutian islands. 

25. Fulmarus glacialis. Rodger's Fulmar; "Lupus.'' 

This is the only representative of the ProecUarina I have seen on or about the Pribylov islands. It repairs to the 
cliffs, especially on the south and east shores of St. George ; comes very early in the season, and selects some rocky 
shelf, secure from all enemies save man, where, making no nest whatever, but squatting on the rock itself, it lays a 
single, large, white, oblong-oval egg, and immediately commences the duty and the labor of incubation. It is of all 
the water fowl the most devoted to its charge, for it will not be scared from the egg by any demonstration that may 
be made in the way of throwing rocks or yelling, and it will even die as it sits rather than take flight, as I have 
frequently witnessed. The fulmar lays about the 1st to the 5th of June. The egg is very palatable, fully equal to 
that of our domestic duck ; indeed, it is somewhat like it. The natives prize them highly, and hence they undertake 
at St. George to gather their eggs by a method and a suspension supremely hazardous, as they lower themselves 
over cliffs five to seven hundred feet above the water. The sensation experienced by myself, when dangled over 
these precipices attached to a slight thong of raw-hide, with the surf boiling and churning three or four hundred feet 
below, and loose rocks rattling down from above, any one of which was sufficient to destroy life should it have 
struck me, is not a sensation to be expressed adequately by language : and, after having passed through the 
ordeal, I came to the surface perfectly satisfied with what I had called the improvidence of the Aleuts. They 
have quite sufficient excuse in my mind to be content with as few fulmar eggs as possible.* The " Lupus", laying so 

*On the heart at Tolstoi Mees, St. George, the natives pointed out to me a basaltic egg-shelf which marked the death of one of their 
townsmen. It occurred in the following singular manner: he the victim, had beeu very successful in securing a large basket of the first 



132 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

early as the 1st of June, is the only rival that the cormorant has with reference to early incubation. It never flies in 
flocks ; it pairs early, and is then exceedingly quiet. I have never heard it utter a sound, save a low, droning croak 
when disgorging food for its young. The chick comes out a perfect puff-ball of white down, and gains its first 
plumage in about six weeks. It is a dull, gray-black at first, but by the end of the season it becomes like the parents 
in coloration, only much darker on the back and scapularies. They are the least edible, with the exception of the 
cormorant, of all bird-food found about the islands ; and, like others of their family, they vomit up the putrid 
contents of their stomachs at the slightest provocation. 

26. Stercorarius pomatorliinus. Pomarine Jager; " Eaz-boi-nik." 

This bird is a rare visitor, and is the only specimen which I procured, and was the sole representative seen on 
the islands of its class. I found it perched in a listless attitude on the high mossy uplands between Kamminista 
and Polavina Sopka. 

27. Stercorarius parasiticus. Parasitic Jager. 

I have seen but a few of these birds, also ; the four or five examples of this species, in my collection, were all 
that I sighted, therefore it may be rated as an infrequent visitor ; it seems to be tired out, and is found upon the 
grassy uplands, where it will alight and stand dozing in an indolent attitude for hours. The natives say that it is 
fond of the berries of the Empetrum, and in confirmation of their statement I found the half-digested remains of this 
fruit therein. No one of the three species of Stercorarius, which I have in my hands, was observed to breed here. 

28. Stercorarius Buffoni. Long-tailed Jager. 

Also seldom seen, and the specimen in my collection is one of the only two I ever observed on the islands. 
When I discovered them, July 29, 1872, they were apparently feeding upon insects and the fruit of the Empetrum 
nigrum. 

29. Larus glaucus. Burgomaster: " Chikie." 

This large, handsome gull, the finest of its race, is restricted in its breeding to Walrus islet alone ; although it 
comes sailing over and around all the islands, in easy, graceful flight, every hour of the day, and frequently late in 
the fall will settle down by hundreds upon the carcasses of the killing-grounds. But, at Walrus islet this bird is 
at home, and here lays its eggs in neat nests built of sea-ferns and dry grass, placed among the turfy tussocks on 
the center of the islet. No foxes are found there. It remains by the Pribylov islands during the whole season, 
though it is sometimes driven by the ice in search of open water, fifty to one hundred miles south ; it invariably 
returns soon after the floe disappears. 

The "chikie" lays as early as the 1st to the 4th of June, depositing three eggs only, within a week or ten 
days. These eggs are large, spherically oval, have a dark, grayish-brown ground, with irregular patches of darker 
brown-black. They vary somewhat in size, but the shape and pattern of coloring is more constant than in any 
other species up here. 

The young burgomaster comes from the shell at the expiration of the regular three weeks' incubation, wearing a 
pure white thick coat of fluffy down, which is speedily supplanted by a brownish -black and gray plumage with 
which the bird takes flight, having nearly attained the size of the parent in less than six aggregate weeks. This 
dark coat changes during the next three months to one nearly white, with the lavender gray back of the adult; the 
legs change from a sickly, pale, grayish tone, to the rich yellow-gray of the mature condition, and the bill also 
passes from a dull brown color to a bright yellow, with a red spot at the top of the lower mandible. It has a loud, 
shrill, eagle-like scream, becoming more monotonous by its repetition ; and it also utters a low, chattering croak 
while coasting. It is a very cleanly bird about its nest, and keeps its plumage in a condition of snowy purity. It 
is not very numerous; I do not think that there were more than five or six hundred nesting on Walrus islet at the 
time of my visit in 1S72. 

30. Larus tridactylus var. Kotzebui. Pacific Kittiwake; "Chornie-xaushkie goverooskie." 

This gull breeds here, by tens of thousands, in company with its first cousin, Larus brevirostris, coming at the same 
time but laying a week or ten days earlier than its relative. In all other respects it corresponds in habit and is in 
just about the same number. It is a remarkably constant bird in plumage coloration when adult, for I have failed 
to observe the slightest variation among the great numbers hereunder my notice. In building its nest it uses more 
.grass and less mud-cement than the brevirostris does. The eggs are more pointed at the small end and lighter in 
the ground color, with numerous splotches of dark brown. The chick is difficult to distinguish with certainty from 
the brevirostris, and it is not until two or three weeks have passed that any difference can be noted between them 
as to the length of bill and color of feet. 

eggs of the season, and, desiring to continue tlie day's work, dispatched his wife hack to the village with the oiilogical burden, so that the 
basket might be emptied ; meanwhile, in her absence, he put his little tethering-stake down anew, and, tying the rope of walrus or sea-lion 
hide to it, dropped over the brow of the cliff on it. A gaunt fox, which had been watching the proceedings, now ran up and fell to 
gnawing the rope, so taut and tense with the weight of the suspended egg-hunter below ; the sharp teeth of Reynard, under the 
circumstances, instantly severed it, and the unfortunate native was da-hed to the rocky shingle some 400 feet below, where his lifeless 
body was soon discovered. The poor fellow lost his life by having, at some earlier hour of the day, rubbed his yolk-smeared hands upon 
the sinewy strands, for at that place only did the hungry fox attack them. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 133 

31. Larus brevirostris. Red-legc.ed Kitteiwak ; " Goverooskie." 

This beautiful gull is one of the most elegant of all birds on the wing, and is, perhaps, as handsome as any known to 
the sight, when it rests ; it seems to delight in favoring these islands with its presence, to the exclusion of other land, 
coming here by tens of thousands to breed. Certain it is that my specimens testify to its special abundance, and that 
it is by far the most attractive of all of its kind; the short, symmetrical bill, large hazel eye with crimson lids, and 
rich coral or vermilion-red legs and feet, contrast beautifully with the snowy-white plumage of its head, neck, 
lavender back, and under parts. 

Like Larus glaucus, this bird remains about the islands during the whole season, coming on the cliffs for the 
purpose of nest-building, breeding by the 9th of May and deserting the bluffs when the birds are fully fledged and 
ready for flight, early in October. It is much more prudent and cautious than the auks and the murres, for its 
nests are always placed on nearly inaccessible shelves and points of moral walls, so that seldom can one be reached, 
unless a person is lowered down to it by a rope passed over the cliff. 

Xest-building is commenced early in May, and completed, generally, not much before the 1st of July ; it uses dry 
grass and moss cemented with mud, which it gathers at the fresh-water pools and ponds scattered over the islands. 
The nest is solidly and neatly put up; the parents work together iu its construction most diligently and amiably. 
Two eggs are the usual number, although occasionally three will be found in the nest. If these eggs are removed 
the female will renew them like the "arrie", in the course of another week or ten days. They are of the size and 
shape of a common hen's egg, but covered with a dark gray ground spotted and blotched with sepia patches. Once 
in a while an egg will have on the smaller end a large number of suffused blood-red spots. Both parents assist in 
the labor of incubation, which lasts a trifle longer than the usual time — from twenty-four to twenty-six days. The 
chick comes out with a pure white downy cpat, a pale whitish-gray bill and feet, and rests helplessly iu the nest 
until its feathers grow. During this period it is a comical-looking object. The natives capture them, now and then, 
to make pets of, always having a number every year scattered through the village, usually tied by one leg to a 
stake at the doors of their houses, where they become very tame ; and, it is not until fall, when cold weather sets in, 
that they become restless and willingly leave their captivity for the freedom of the air. This bird is remarkably 
constant in its specific characters. Among the thousands and tens of thousands of them, I have never observed 
any variation in the coloration of the bills, feet, or plumage of the mature birds, with one exception. This is a 
variety, seldom seen, however, iu which the feet are nearly yellow, or much more yellow than red, and the edge of 
the eyelid is black instead of being normally scarlet; there is also a dark patch back of each eye in these odd 
specimens. The abnormal color of the feet is, probably, due to sheer accidental individual peculiarity, while the 
eye-patch and absence of bright color from the eyelids may depend upon the season. 

32. Colymbus arcticus. Black-throated Diver. 

When surveying Zapaduie, July, 1873, in measuring my angles on the beach, I came across the form of this 
bird, thrown up, nearly dead, by the surf, under my feet. It is the only one I have seen upon the islands, and 
I called the attention of the old wiseacres of the village to it. Whereupon, after much deliberation and guttural 
Aleutian vocalization, they informed me that they had never noticed it before around the island, though one aged 
man declared to the contrary, and submitted his minority report with great emphasis and much gravity. At all 
events, it is seldom seen here. The bird in question was a fine adult specimen, and it is interesting to observe that 
it is the true Colymbus arcticus and not var. pacificus, which might naturally have been expected. 

33. Podiceps griseigena. Red-necked Grebe. 

As in the case of the diver above cited, the present specimen is a typical form rather than a Xorth American 
variety. It was the only specimen seen during my residence on the island. It has, however, been observed by the 
natives heretofore, though they affirm that it is uncommon; also, a straggler, in my opinion. 

34. Fratercula comiculata. Horned Puffin ; " Epatka." 

My first impression when I saw one of these odd-looking birds, with its large shovel-like, lemon-yellow and red 
bill, as it sat squatted in glum silence on the rocky cliff perches, was one of great amusement, and it stared back at 
me in stolid wonder as I laughed. Of all birds in these latitudes, it seems to have been fashioned with a special 
regard to the fantastic and ludicrous. This mormon, in common with one other species, M. cirrhata, conies up from 
the sea in the south to the cliffs of the islands about the 10th of May, always in pairs, never coming singly to, or 
going away from, the Pribylovs in flocks. It makes a nest of dried sea-ferns, grass, and moss, slovenly laid together, 
far back in some deep or rocky crevice, where, when the egg is laid, it is ninety-nine times out of a hundred cases, 
inaccessible; nothing but blasting-powder would open a passage to it for man. It has this peculiarity: it is the 
only bird on these islands which seems to quarrel forever and ever with its mate. The hollow reverberations of its 
anger, scolding, and vituperation from the nuptial chamber, are the most characteristic sounds, and indeed the only 
ones that come from the recesses of the rocks. Xo sympathy need be expended on the female. She is just as big and 
just as violent as her lord and master. The nest contains but a single egg, large, oblong, oval, pure white; and, 
contrary to the custom of the gulls, arries, and choochkies, when the egg is removed the sea-parrot does not renew 
it, but deserts the nest, perhaps locating elsewhere. The young chick I have not been able to get until it becomes 



134 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

fledged and ready for flight in August; then it does not differ materially from its parent. Only the absence of 
the auricular plumes can be noted. The EpatJca leaves the island about the 10th of September, spending, I believe, 
the rest of the time at sea. Except when quarreling in the nesting caverns, this bird is very quiet and unobtrusive. 
It does not come in large numbers to the islands, for it breeds everywhere else in Bering sea, and along the 
northwest coast as far south as Gross sound. Its flight is performed with quick and rapid wing-beats, in a straight 
and steady course. There is no difference between the sexes as to shape, size, or plumage. 

35. Fratercula cirrhata. Tufted Puffin; "Tawporkie." 

This bird comes to the island at about the same time as its cousin, just preceding, and resembles the "Epatkie" 
in its habits, generally, being quite as conspicuous a domestic scold. It lays a single large white egg of a rounded 
oval shape. I was not able to see a newly hatched chick, owing to the retired and inaccessible breeding places; 
for, whenever I could find an egg I seized upon it instantly, not daring to wait for the culmination of hatching. I 
think that Wah-us islet, if visited frequently during the close of the hatching-season, would afford an opportunity 
to study the young, because the nests, which were the only ones from which I could get eggs, are more easy of 
access. The young tawporkie, six weeks old, resembles the parents exactly, only the bill is lighter colored and 
the plumes on the head are incipient. Walrus islet is the only place where the birds can be daily seen and watched 
with satisfactory results. I took eggs from over 30 nests in July. The natives say that when it is mating, its 
cries sound like the growling of a bear, as they issue from far down under the rocks which cover its nest. 

36. Phaleris psittacula. Parroquet Auk; "Baillie Brushkie." 

This quaintly-beaked bird is quite common on the Pribylov group, and can be obtained at St. George in large 
numbers. It comes to the islands early in May, mute and silent, locating its nest in a deep chink or crevice of 
some inaccessible cliff, where it lays a single egg and rears its young. It is very quiet and undemonstrative 
during the pairing season, its only note being a low, sonorous, vibrating whistle. Like Simorhynclius cristaieUit/i, it 
will breed in company with the "choochkie", but will not follow that lively relative back upon the uplands, for 
the "baillie brushkie" is always found on the shore line, and there only. The egg, which is laid upon the bare 
earth or rock, is pure white, oblong-ovate, measuring li by 2£ inches. To obtain it is exceedingly difficult, owing 
to the bird's great caution in hiding and care in selecting some deep winding crevice in the face of a cliff. At 
the entrance to this nesting cavern, the parents will sometimes squat down and sit silently for hours at a time, 
if undisturbed. It does not fly about the islands in flocks, and seems to lead an unassuming, independent life by 
itself, caring nothing for the society of its kind. The young, when first hatched, I have not seen, but by the 10th 
or 15th of August they may be coming out for the first time from their secure retreats, and taking to wing as fully 
fledged as their parents. They leave the islands from the 20th of August to the 1st of September, and go out upon 
the North Pacific for the winter, where they find their food, which consists of ampltipocla and fish-fry. I have never 
seen one among the thousands that were around me on the islands, opening bivalve-shells, such as mussels, as 
stated by a German author. It feeds at sea, flying out every morning and returning in the afternoon to its nest 
and mate. As in the case of the puffins nothing else than dynamite, or similar agency, could open the basaltic 
crevices in which the bird hides ; and, of course, resort to this action would also destroy the egg ; therefore, I was 
not able to gather much more than a baker's dozen of their eggs, though I could see at any time a thousand of 
the birds. 

37. Sirnorhynchus cristatellus. Crested Auk; "Canooskie." 

This fantastic bird, the plumed knight of the Pribylov islands, is conspicuous by reason of its curling crest and 
bright crimson bill. It makes its appearance in early May, and repairs to chinks and holes in the rocky cliffs, or 
deep down below a huge bowlder and rough basaltic shingle, to deposit its egg upon the bare earth or rock, making no 
nest whatever ; and, like the " brushkie ", so well do these birds succeed in secreting their charge, that although I 
was constantly upon the ground where several thousand pairs were laying, I was unable successfully to overturn the 
rocks under which they hide, and get more than four perfect eggs, the sum total of many hundred attempts. The 
note of the " canooskie", while mating, is a loud, clanging, honk-like sound ; at all other seasons they are as silent as 
the grave. The crested auk lays but one egg, and the parents take turns, I am inclined to believe, in the labor of 
hatching and in that of feeding their young. The egg is rough, pure white, but with frequent discolorations, and, 
compared with the size and weight of the bird, is disproportionately large. It is an elongated oblong-oval, the 
smaller end being quite pointed. Length, 2.10; width, 1.40. I have not seen a chick, nor could I get any notes 
upon its appearance from the natives, but I have shot the young as they came out for the first time from their dark, 
secure, hiding places, full fledged, with the exception of their distinctive crest, being by this time, the 10th to 15th 
of August, as large as the old birds, and of the same color and feathering. The "canooskie", like its cousin, the 
" choochkie", has no sexual variation in size or plumage ; males and females, to all external view, are precisely alike. 
The bright crimson bill varies, however, considerably in color, and in its strength and curve, the slenderer bill being 
confined, as far as I could see, to the young birds ; some old ones had very pointed beaks also. 

38. Simorhynchus pusillus. Least, or Knob-bulled Auk ; "Choochkie." 

I take pleasure in writing the biography of this little bird, which is the most characteristic and the most 



Plate XXIX. 



Monograph— SEAL-ISLANDS. 




CHOOCHKAMIE EDOOT! 





THE FULMAR'S NICHE. "EPATKIE" AND "TAWPORKIE." 

ORNITHOLOGICAL SKETCHES ON THE PRIBYLOV ISLANDS, BY THE AUTHOR. 



Herewith presented through the courtesy of Harper Brothers. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 135 

interesting one of all the waterfowl frequenting the Pribylov islands, for it comes here every summer by millions 
to breed. It is comically indifferent to the proximity of man, and can be approached almost within an arm's length 
before taking flight, sitting squatted upright and eyeing you with its peculiar " watch-ring" optics, that wear au air 
of great wisdom combined with profound astonishment. 

Usually, about the 1st or 4th of May, every year, the " choochkie" makes its first appearance around the islands 
for the season, in small flocks of a few hundred or thousand, hovering over and now and then alighting upon the 
water, sporting one with the other iu apparent high glee, makiug an incessant, low, chattering sound ; but they are 
only the van to flocks that by the 1st or Gth of June have swarmed in upon the islands, like those flights of locusts 
which staggered my credulity on the great plains of the west. They frequent the loose stony reefs and bowlder- 
bars ou St. Paul, together with the cliffs on both islands ; and what is most remarkable, they search out an area 
over five miles square of basaltic shingle on St. George island, which lies back and over, inland from the north 
shore-line. To the last position they come in greatest numbers ; they make no nest, but lay a single egg far down 
below among the loose rocks, or they deposit it deep within the crevices or chinks in the faces of the bluffs. 

Although, owing to their immense numbers, they seem to be iu a state of great confusion, yet they pair off and 
conduct all of their billing and cooing down under the rocks, on the spot chosen for incubation ; making, during this 
interesting period, a singular croaking sound more like a "devil's fiddle" than anything I have ever heard outside 
of a city's limits. 

To walk over their breeding-grounds, at this season, is highly interesting and most amusing, as the noise of 
hundreds and thousands of these little birds, which are directly under your feet, gives rise to an endless variation 
of volume of sound, as it comes up from the stony holes and caverns below; while the birds come and go, in and 
out, whistling around your head, comically blinking and fluttering. 

The male birds, and many of the females, regularly leave the breeding-grounds in the morning and go off to 
sea, where they feed on small water-shrimps and sea-fleas, returning to their nests and sitting partners, in the 
evening. It is one of the sights on St. George, this early morning departure and the early evening return of 
the myriads of choochkies to their nests. The Simorhynchus lays a single pure white egg, exceedingly variable in 
size and shape, usually oblong-oval with the smaller end pointed. I have several specimens almost spherical, and 
others drawn out into an elongated ellipse; but the oblong oval, with the pointed smaller end, is the prevailing 
type. Compared with the size and weight of the little bird, the egg is excessively large. Average length, 1.55; 
width, 1.12. The length of the bird, 3 inches; width, 2 inches. The general aspect of the egg is very much 
like that of the pigeon's, excepting the roughness of the shell. The chick is covered with a thick, uniform, dark, 
grayish-black down, which is speedily succeeded by feathers, all much darker than those of the parent, when 
it takes its flight from the island for the year, six weeks after hatching. Old birds feed their young by disgorging, 
never carrying anything up in their bills, and. when the young leave, they are just as large and just as heavy as 
their parents. I am strongly inclined to think that the male bird feeds the female while incubating, but have not 
been able to verify this observation, as they are always hidden from sight at the time, and they cannot be told 
apart by size or color. 

39. Lomvia troile, var. californica. Murre; "Guillemot." 

Limited numbers of theOaliforniau guillemot are found occasionally perched on the cliffs with the arrie; they 
can only be distinguished at a short distance by a practiced eye, for they resemble their allies so closely and conform 
so strictly to their habits, that it will be but repeating the description of the L. arra, given below, should I attempt 
it. The largest gathering in any one place, that I have seen on the islands, of these birds, was a squad of about 
fifty ou the high bluffs at St. George, but they are generally scattered by ones, twos, and threes among thousands 
and tens of thousands of the arra. 

40. Lomvia arra. Thick-billed Guillemot; "Arrie." 

This is the only egg-bird that has the slightest economic value to man on the Pribylov islands. The bird 
itself is in bodily size a true counterpart of our ordinary barn-yard duck, only it cannot walk or even waddle as 
the domestic swimmer does. It lays a single egg, large and very fancifully colored; a bluish-green ground, shot 
with dark-brown mottliugs and patches, but exceedingly variable as to definite size and color. The outline of the 
egg is pyriform, sometimes more acute, again more ovate. It is the most palatable of all the varieties found on the 
islands, except the fulmar; and when perfectly fresh I can testify to its practical equality with our deservedly 
prized hen's eggs; it never has any disagreeable flavor whatever, for the birds feed entirely upon marine Crustacea. 
I have never found any fish iu their craws. 

This bird is the true arra of Pallas, a name derived undoubtedly from its striking similarity to the 
harsh sound uttered by the bird. It is preseut iu immense multitudes, countless flocks, principally surrounding St. 
George island, although Walrus islet is fairly covered by them. They appear very early in the season, but are 
slow in laying, not beginning usually until the 18th or 25th of June. I feel quite well assured that these birds do 
not migrate far fi-om Bering sea during the most severe winters, and in the milder hyemal seasons numbers of them 
are around the islands during the entire year. They lay their eggs upon the points and narrow shelves, on the faces 



136 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

of the cliff-fronts to the islands, straddling over the eggs, side by side, as thickly as they can crowd, making no nests. 
They quarrel desperately, but not by scolding; it is spirited action, and so earnestly do they light, that all along 
below the high bluff's of the north shore of St. George, when I passed thereunder during the breeding-season, I 
stepped over hundreds of dead birds which had fallen and dashed themselves to death upon the rocks while 
clinched in combat with their rivals ; for they seize one another in mid-air and hang with their strong mandibles so 
savagely to each other's skin and feathers, that, with the swift whirring of their powerful wings they are blinded to 
their peril, and strike the earth beneath ere they realize their danger and immediate death. Their curious straddling, 
whereby the egg is warmed and hatched, lasts nearly twenty-eight days, and then the young comes out with a 
dark, thick coat of down, which is supplanted by the plumage and color of the old bird, in less than six weeks. 
They are fed by the disgorging parents, seemingly without a moment's intermission, uttering, all the while between 
their gulps, a hoarse, harsh, croak, lugubrious enough. 

The males and females have no sexual distinction as to size, shape, and plumage; their snow-white breasts 
are vividly contrasted with their shiny, chocolate necks; backs and wing-coverts are always black, while beneath 
them is a continuation of the pure white of the abdomen. They fly with an energetic action of their short, pointed 
piuions, a nervous, quick, and well-sustained flight, never swerving or deviating from their straight course after 
they once rise. They plump into the water like stones ; and, unless the sea is running, it is difficult for them to 
take to wing from a smooth surface; this gives them little concern, however, inasmuch as they dive so freely. 

It is fitting, perhaps, that I should say in connection with the final discussion of this bird, which closes my list 
of the avifauna peculiar to these strange islands, that its singular habit of circling St. George as it flies in the 
morning and in the evening, during the mating season, produces a very extraordinary demonstration as to the 
exceeding number of their kind ; for instance at St. George island, while the females begin to sit over their eggs 
toward the end of June aad first of July, at regular hours in the morning and in the evening, the males go 
flying around and around the island, in great files and platoons, always circling against, or quartering on, the 
wind; and they make in this way, during a sustained period of hours at a time, a dark girdle of birds more than a 
quarter of a mile broad and thirty miles long, flying so thickly together that the wings of one fairly strike those 
of the other; and, as they go, they whirl in swift, revolving, endless succession, during the periods just 
mentioned. This is a dress-parade of ornithological power, which I challenge the world to rival; certainly the 
Pribylov islands possess distinctive exhibitions of mammalia and aves, which are unrivaled.* 

Closing memoranda. — The above list of birds found on the Pribylov islands by myself in the seasons of 
1872-'76, inclusive, is perhaps not exhaustive in its application to the straggling visitors; indeed, I think it more than 
likely that several names will be added by those who may pay the subject further attention ; I do not enumerate the 
Aegiothii which I shot there June 21, 1872, because the specimens were so badly damaged by my coarse ammunition 
as to defy proper skinning; therefore I made alcoholics of them, and those collections have been mislaid since my 
return. Also the natives say that a small brown owl in the summer breeds on St. George, and the large Arctic or 
Snowy Nyctea is occasionally taken at either island. I saw none while there. 

27. CATALOGUE OF THE FISHES OF THE PRIBYLOV GROUP. 

[A memorandum of the fishes collected at the Pribylov islands, 1872-73, by Henry W. Elliott.] 

Anarrhichas lepturus. Eare ; seals drive them off. 
Gadus morrhua. "TREESCA."t Eare; seals drive them off. 
Hippoglossus vulgaris. "Poltoos." Common ; only large ones caught. 
Melletes papilio.i; " Kalog." Common ; a beach cottoid. 

*I have said, in my notes of introduction to this monograph, that I have been obliged to confine myself in its preparation entirely to 
my own observations and field-work ; when, therefore, I speak as above of such immense myriads of water-fowl, I fear that some kindly 
critic may declare truly I remind him of worthy Master Gerard, who, in 1636, speaking of Irish birds, announced that the common barnacle 
goose, Branta leucopsis, was produced in a wonderful fashion, and proceeded to describe its growth from the mollusk, Pentelasmis 
anatifera, in the most circumstantial manner, prefacing this amazing story by a voucher couched in these words: "What our eyes have 
seen, and hands have touched, we shall declare;" also he gives a figure showing the metamorphosis going on from the shell into the 
goose! This cirrhipodous origin of the bird in question has not been agreed to, in spite of (he weight of evidence, but strangely enough 
its generic name has been given and retained in accordance with the fable, and the barnacle itself is still called by conchologists "the 
five-pointed goose bearer"! or Pentelasmis anatifera. 

tThe St. George natives have caught codfish just off the Tolstoi head early in June, but it is a rare occurrence ; by going out two or 
three miles from the village at either island, during July and August, the native fisherman usually captures large halibut; not iu 
abundance, however. The St. Paul people, as well as their relatives on St. George, fish in small, "one hole" bidarkies; they venture 
together iu squads of four to six; one man aloue in the kyack is not able to secure a "bolshoi poltoos"; the method, when the halibut is 
hooked, is to call for your nearest neighbor in his bidarka, who paddles swiftly up ; you extend your paddle to him, retaining your own 
hold, and he grasps it, then you seize his in turn, thus making it impossible to capsize, while the large and powerfully struggling fish is 
brought to the surface between the canoes, and knocked on the head; it is then towed ashore and carried, in triumph, to the lucky 
captor's house. 

f New genus and species determined by Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, based upon my type specimen. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 137 

Cottus niger.* " Kalog." Common ; a beach cottoid. 
Muraenoides maxillaris.* Bare ; a beach fish. 
Liparis gibbus.* Rare. 

Gasterosteus cataphractus. Common ; found in lagoon. 
Gasterosteus pungitius. Common ; found in lagoon. 

28. NOTES ON THE INVERTEBRATES. 

Field notes upon the entomology, malacology, botany, etc. — Touching a specific list of the insect life 
here, I regret exceedingly that my collections covering this head, as well as those which include the two following 
orders, have been unaccountably mislaid ; consequently, I shall not reproduce the hastily and naturally imperfect 
memoranda which I made of them when they were packed on St. Paul island in 1872. 

Limited number of insects on the Pkibylov islands. — The variety and abundance of entomological life 
here is not great, with the marked exception of a few species of beetles and flesh flies on the killing-grounds. The 
green and golden carabus is, however, found distributed in great numbers all over the islands. 

Scanty molltjscan representation on the seal-islands. — I qualify my statements made at the 
introduction to this memoir, by saying that the terrestrial and littoral forms of mollusca on and around the Pribylov 
group are scant in number; but I believe that the pelagic life in this respect will be found quite rich. For instance, 
I never saw any live specimens of the Nepfamiance. All the shells of this character collected had been cast up by the 
surf and were empty. The largest live gasteropod that came under my notice was a species of Murex. As the 
above sketch plainly shows, the conchologist has not a very extensive field here, though doubtless search beut 
directly to this end would develop a much better catalogue. If a dredge were patiently and energetically used 
around these islands, I am very sure that many new forms would be found, which give us tangible evidence of their 
being, by land and beach hunting for them. My time was so thoroughly engrossed on the rookeries that I had 
not a single day to spare during the only season of the year in which I could work with my dredge. The rough 
water and weather that prevail when the seals are not about, prevented my following up the mollusks in this 
manner. 

Sea eggs, or sea urchins : Toxopneustes. — Frequently the natives have brought a dish of sea-urchins' 
viscera for our table, offering it as a great delicacy. I do not think any of us did more that to taste it. The native 
women are the chief hunters for Uchinoidce, and during the whole spring and summer seasons they may be seen at 
both islands, wading in the pools at low water, with their scanty skirts high up, eagerly laying possessive hands upon 
every "bristling" egg that shows itself. They vary this search by poking, with a short-handled hook, into holes 
and rocky crevices for a small cottoid fish, which is also found here at low water in this manner. Specimens of this 
"kalog," which I brought down, declared themselves as representatives of a new departure from all other recognized 
forms in which the sculpiu is known to sport; hence the name, generic and specific, Melletes papilio. 

The "sand-cake", Echinarachnms sp., is also very common here. 

Fine table crab: Chionoecetes. — By the 28th of May to the middle of June, a fine table crab, large, fat, 
and sweet, with a light, brittle shell, is taken while it is skurrying in and out of the lagoon as the tide ebbs and 
flows. It is the best flavored crustacean known to Alaskan waters; they are taken nowhere else, at St. Paul; 
and when on St. George I failed to see one. I am not certain as to the accuracy of the season of running, viz, 
28th May to loth June, inasmuch as that one of my little note-books on which this date is recorded turns out 
missing at the present writing, and I am obliged to give it from memory. The only economic shell-fish which the 
islands afford is embodied in the Chionwcetes opUio(l). The natives affirm the existence of mussels here in abundance 
when the Pribylov group was first discovered, but now only a small supply of inferior size and quality is to be 
found. 

Marine skeleton-makers: Beautiful wobk of sea-fleas. — The service which swarms of Anvphidodons 
crustaceans rendered me in cleaning the bones of birds, fish, and even seals, cannot be too highly eulogized. Only in 
that small bight, however, known as the "Cove", near the village of St. Paul, could I get the work done; because 
at no other spot on the Pribylov islands was the sea- water quiet enough. By taking common hard-bread boxes, 
which the company's agent gave me from the store, and substituting a slatted cover, I would, by rock-ballasting, 
sink this with fifteen or twenty bird carcasses in the water here at low tide. "When a single flow and ebb had taken 
place, I had the box taken promptly out, never failing to find every skeleton perfectly polished, yet entirely 
articulated; the most delicate bones in a fish's head or fins were intact. The strong food which the blubber of the 
seal carcasses afford acts so as to gorge and stupefy these little ghouls of the ocean, for I did not succeed well at all 
with such attempts. The bones of CaUorhinus would have to lay submerged in the cove for weeks, sometimes, ere 
they were eaten free of flesh, fat, etc.; then, when taken out, they would be sadly discolored by the salt water, 
turned black and dingy in streaks and sections. 

"New species. 



138 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

29. NOTES ON THE PLANTS. 

The principal vegetation op the Peibylot group: Absence of trees. — That spruce trees can be made 
to live transplanted from indigenous localities to the barren slopes of the Aleutian islands has been demonstrated; 
but in living, these trees scarcely grow to any appreciable degree. Evergreens were transferred to Ooualashka, 
when Veniauiinov was at work there in lS30-'3o. They are still standing and keep green, yet the change 
which such a long lapse of time should produce by growth has been as difficult to determine as it is to find 
evidence of increased altitude to the mountains around them since these Sitkan trees were planted, with pious 
hope, at their feet fifty years ago. Though I can readily understand why the salmon berries of Ooualashka should 
not do well on the seal-islands (still I think they would at the Garden cove of St. George), nevertheless I believe 
that the whortleberries of that section would thrive at many places, if carefully transplanted to these localities, on 
the southern slopes of Cemetery ridge at Zapaduie, the southern slopes of Telegraph hill, and eastern fall of Tolstoi 
peninsula down to the shore of the lagoon. They might also do well set out at picked places about the Big lake 
and on Northeast point, around the little lake thereon. If these bushes really throve here, they would be the 
means of adding greatly to the comfort of the inhabitants; for the Oonalashka whortleberry is an exceeding pleasant, 
juicy fruit, large and well adapted for canning and preserving. Having less sunshine here than at Illoolook, 
it may not ripen up as well flavored, but would, I think, succeed. The roots of the plants when brought up from 
Oonalashka in April or early May, should be kept moist by wet moss wrappings, from the moment they are first taken 
up until they are reset, with the tops well pruned back, on the Pribylov islands. The experiment is surely worth 
all the trouble of making, and I hope it will be undertaken. 

The characteristic "talneek": Salix. — The only suggestion of a tree found growing on the Pribylov 
group is the hardy "talneek" or creeping willow; there are three species of the genus Salix found here, viz, 
reticulata, polaris, and arctica; the first named is the most common and of largest growth ; it progresses exactly as 
a cucumber vine does in our gardens; as soon as it has made from the seed a sprout of six inches or a foot upright 
from the soil, then it droops over and crawls along prostrate upon the earth, rocks, and sphagnum ; some of the 
largest talneek trunks will measure eight or ten feet in decumbent length along the ground, and are as large 
around the stump as an average wrist of man. The usual size, however, is very, very much less ; while the stems 
of polaris and arctica scarcely ever reach the diameter of a pencil case, or the procumbent length of two feet. 

Although Rubus cliamcemorus is a tree shrub, and is found here very commonly distributed, yet it grows such a 
slender, diminutive bush, that it gives no thought whatever of its being anything of the sort. The herbs, grasses, 
and ferns tower above it on all sides. 

Familiar and lovely flowering plants. — Perhaps no one plant that flowers on the seal-islands is more 
conspicuous or abundant than is the Saxifraga oppositifolia ; it rises over all localities, rank and tall in rich 
locations, to stems scarcely one inch high on the thin, poor soil of hill summits and sides; densely cespitose, with 
leaves all imbricated in four rows; and flowers almost sessile. I think that at least ten well-defined species of this 
order, Saxifmgacece, exist on the Pribylov group. The Ranunculacece are not so numerous ; but, still, a buttercup 
growing in every low slope, where you may chance to wander, is always a pleasant reminder of pastures at home; 
and, also, a suggestion of the farm is constantly made by the luxuriant inflorescence of the wild mustard, Cruciferce. 
The chickweed, Caryopkyllaccc, is well represented, and also the familiar dandelion, Taraxacum palustre. The 
lichens, Thallophytes, and the mosses, Musci, are in their greatest exuberance, variety, and beauty here; and 
myriads of yellow poppies, Pap>averacce, are nodding their graceful heads in the sweeping of the wind — they are 
the first flowers to bloom, and the last to fade. 

The chief economic value rendered by the botany of the Pribylov islands to the natives, is the abundance of 
the basket-making rushes, Juncaccc, which the old "barbies" gather in the margins of many of the lakes and 
pools. 

Mushrooms at St. Paul. — The fungoid growths on the Pribylov islands are abundant and varied, especially 
in and around the vicinity of the rookeries and the killing-grounds. On the west slope of the Black Bluffs at St. 
Paul, the mushroom, Agaricus campestris, was gathered in the season of 1872 by the natives, and eaten by one or 
two families in the village, who had learned from the Bussians to cook them nicely. These seal-island mushrooms 
have deeper tones of pink and purple red in their gills than do those of my gathering in the states. I kicked over 
many large spherical "puff-balls", Lycoperdons, in my tundra walks; myriads of smaller ones, Lycopcrdon cinereum(F), 
cover patches near the spots where carcasses have long since rotted, together with a pale-gray fungus, Agaricus 
fimiputris, exceedingly delicate and frosted exquisitely. Some ligneous fungi, Clavariw, will be found attached to 
the decaying stems of Salix reticulata (creeping willows). The irregularity of the annual growing of the agarics, 
and their rapid growth when they do appear, make their determination excessively difficult; they are as unstable 
in their visits as are several of the Lepidoptera. The cool humidity of climate during the summer season on the 
Pribylov islands is especially adapted to the mysterious, but beautiful growth of these plants — the apotheosis of 
decay. The coloring of several varieties is very bright and attractive, shading from a purplish scarlet to a pallid 
white. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 139 

Diverse elegance and services op tiie cryptogams. — The range and diverse beauties of the numerous 
mosses and lichens on these Pribylov islands must serve as an agreeable and interesting study to any one who has 
the slightest love for nature. They undoubtedly formed the first covering to the naked rocks, after those basaltic 
foundations had been reared upon and above the bed of the sea — bare and naked cliffs and bowlders, which with 
calm intrepidity presented their callous fronts to the ice-wedging chisels of the Frost King; rain, wind, and thawing 
moods destroyed their iron-bound strongness; particles larger and finer washed down and away made a surface 
of soil which slowly became more and more capable of sustaining vegetable life. Iu this virgin earth, says an old 
author — 

The wind brings a small seed, which at first generates a diminutive moss, which, spreading by degrees, with its tender and minute 
texture, resists, however, the most intense cold, and extends over the whole a verdant velvet carpet. In fact, these mosses are the 
medicines and the nurses of the other inhabitants of the vegetable kingdom [in the North]. The bottom parts of the mosses, which 
perish and moulder away yearly, mingling with the dissolved but as yet crude parts of the earth, communicate to it organized particles, 
which contribute to the growth and nourishment of other plants; they likewise yield salts and unguinous phlogistic particles for the 
nourishment of future vegetable colonies. The seeds of other plants, which the sea and winds, or else the birds iu their plumage, bring 
from distant shines, and scatter among the mosses. 

Then the botanist needs no prompting when he observes the maternal care of those mosses that screen the 
tender new arrivals from the cold, and imbue them with the moisture which they have stored up, and — 

Nourish them with their own oily exhalations so that they grow, increase, and at length bear seeds, and afterward dying, add to the 
unguinous nutritive particles of the earth, and at the same time diffuse over this new earth and mosses more seeds, the earnest of a numerous 
posterity. 

The following species of alga? were collected iu lS72-'73, by the author: 

MELANOSPERMJE. 

(All called "Kapoosta"; natives.) 

Fucus vesiculosus. Common ; anchored in large beds. 

Kereocystis Liitkeanus. ("Sea-otter rafts.") Common. 

Alaria esculenta. Common. This has been used by the Pribylov natives as an article of food relish. 

Chordaria flagelliformis. Common. 

Elacbista fucicola. Common. 

RHOSOSFERM^. 
Polysiphonia. Bare. 
Melobesia polymorphs. Common. 
Melobesia lichenoides. Common. 
Delesseria. Pare. 
Peyssonnelia. Common. 
Collishamnion. Common. 

CHLOROSPERMJE. 
Cladophora uncialis. Common. 

Conferva capillaris. Common (fresh-water lakes and pools). 
Nostochinea. Common (fresh-water lakes and pools). 
Ulva latissima. Common. 

The above names do not pretend to specify the entire list that will be found here, but they simply indicate those 
varieties which are dominant. 

Luxuriance and variety of the sea-weeds. — The extent and luxuriance, variety and beauty of the algae 
forests of these waters of Bering sea which lave the coasts of the Pribylov group, call for more detail of description 
than space in this memoir will allow, since anything like a fair presentation of the subject would require the 
reproduction of my water colored drawings. After the heavier gales, especially the southeaster in October, if the 
naturalist will take the trouble to pace the sand-beach between Lukannon and Xortheast point of St. Paul island, 
he will be rewarded by a memorable sight. He will find thrown up by the surf a vast windrow of kelp along the 
whole eight or ten miles of this walk, heaped, at some spots, nearly as high as his head; the large trunks of 
Melanospermce, the small, but brilliant red and crimson fronds of Rhodospermce interwoven with the emerald green 
leaves of the ChlorospermiB. The first-named group is by far the most abundant, and upon its decaying, fermenting 
brown and ocher heaps, he will see countless numbers of a buccinoid whelk, and a limnaca, feeding as they bore or 
suck out myriads of tiny holes in the leaf fronds of the strong growing species. 

Sea-anejiones and star-fishes. — Actinias or sea-anemones occur, together with numerous starfishes ; many 
jelly-fishes are also interwoven and heaped up with the ''kapoosta" or sea-cabbages just referred to; also, a 
quantity of rosy "sea-squirts" and y T ellow "sea -cucumbers". 

Confervoid rugs and carpets. — On the old killing-fields, on those spots where the sloughing carcasses of 



140 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

repeated seasons have so enriched the soil as to render it like fire to most vegetation, a silken green Conferva grows 
luxuriantly. This terrestrial algoid covering appears here and there, on these grounds, like so many door-mats of 
pea-green wool. That confervoid flourishes only on those spots where nothing but pure decaying animal matter is 
found. An admixture of sand or earth will always supplant it by raising up instead those strong growing grasses 
which I have alluded to elsewhere, and which constitute the chief botanical life on the killing-grounds. 

Precautions necessary to successful botanical work. — If the following hints will serve to save the 
next collection of botanical specimens that may be gathered on these islands, it is not superfluous to print them 
here. Let the collector take a large amount of bibulous paper, and a small room all to himself; in the center 
of this apartment place a little stove, with an "organ" pipe; then fit up a series of broad library shelves around 
the walls from the floor to the ceiling ; upon these shelves he will be enabled, aided by a low, steady fire, to dry 
the intensely juicy leguminosse, and several other exceedingly thick and watery stemmed plants so peculiar to the 
Pribylov islands, thus save their color, and prevent them from turning black; a little fire must be kept in the 
room all the time that the collection is in the process of curing, and also after it is ready for use, ere leaving the 
islands. When shipped it should be hung up, well boxed, in the fire-room of the steamer; or else, if the voyage 
happens to be unusually foggy and dilatory, it will sweat in the hold, or cabin even, and be entirely destroyed 
before San Francisco is reached. I give these remarks advisedly and feelingly, for I lost the result of a hard 
season's work in this line of collection. By not appreciating these desiderata, another naturalist may come here 
as I did, be charmed with the flora, as well as the fauna, and after gathering hundreds of specimens at the expense 
of weary weeks of constant tramping, lose them all. 

Courtesies extended to naturalists. — The Alaska Commercial Company afforded me every facility that 
I had the ingenuity to ask for — giving me the unrestricted use of their men, their buildings, and their experience. 
Had it been the direct labor of the company instead of that in which I was engaged, I could not have had more 
attention paid to me and my pursuits. They stand ready to do as much again for any other accredited naturalist 
who may follow in my path over the Pribylov islands while they have control; this they will possess for nearly 
another decade hence. 

30. VENIAMINOV ON THE RUSSIAN SEAL-INDUSTRY AT THE PEIBYLOV ISLANDS. 

[Translated by the author, from Veniaminov's ZapiesHe, etc.; St. Petersburg, 1842; vol. ii, pr>. 568.*] 

Indiscriminate slaughter by the first discoverers. — From the time of the discovery of the Pribylov 
islands up to 1805 (or, that is, until the time of the arrival in America of General Resanov), the taking of fur-seals 
on both islands progressed without count or lists, and without responsible heads or chiefs, because then (1787 to 
1805, inclusive) there were a number of companies, represented by as many agents or leaders, and all of them 
vied with each other in taking as many as they could before the killing was stopped. After this, in 1806 and 1807, 
there were no seals taken, and nearly all the people were removed to Oonalashka. 

Partial check ordered. — In 1808 killing was again commenced ; but the people in this year were allowed 
to kill only on St. George. On St. Paul hunters were not permitted this year or the next. It was not until the 
fourth year after this that as many as half the number previously taken were annually killed. From this time (St. 
George 1808, and St. Paul 1810) up to 1822, taking fur-seals progressed on both islands without economy and with 
slight circumspection, as if there was a race in killing for the most skins. Cows were taken in the drives and 
killed, and were also driven from the rookeries to places where they were slaughtered. 

It was only in 1822 that G. Moorayvev (governor) ordered that young seals should be spared every year for 
breeding, and from that time there were taken from the Pribylov islands, instead of 40,000 to 50,000, which 
Moorayvev ordered to be spared in four successive years, no more than S,000 to 10,000. Since this, G. Chestyahkov, 
chief ruler after Moorayvev, estimated that from the increase resulting from the legislation of Moorayvev, which 
was so honestly carried out on the Pribylov islands, that in these four years the seals on St. Paul had increased to 
double their previous number, (that) he could give an order which increased the number to be annually slain to 
40,000; and this last order or course directed for these islands, demanded as many seals as could be got; but with 
all possible exertion hardly 28,000 Avere obtained. 

Poor results. — After this, when it was most plainly seen that the seals were, on account of this wicked 
killing, steadily growing less and less in number, the directions were observed for greater caution in killing the 
grown seals and young females, which came in with the droves of killing-seals, and to endeavor to separate, if 
possible, these from those which should be slain. 

Partial checks again ordered. — But all this hardly served to do more than keep the seals at one figure 
or number, and hence did not cause an increase. Finally, in 1834, the governor of the company, upon the clear 
(or " handsome'") argument of Baron Wraugel, which was placed before him, resolved to make new regulations 
respecting them, to take effect in the same year (1834), and, following this, on the island of St. Paul only r 4,000 
were killed, instead of 12,000. 

* Tlio italics are mine, and my translation is nearly literal, as might be inferred by the idiom here and there. — H. W. E. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 141 

On tlie island of St. George tbe seals were allowed to rest in 182C and 1S27, and since that time greater 
caution and care have been observed, and headmen or foremen have kept a careful count of the killing. 

From this it will be seen that no anxiety or care as to the preservation of the seal life began until 1805 (i. e., 
with the united companies). 

It is farther evident, that all half measures, seen or not seen, were useful no longer, as they only served to 
preserve a small portion of the seal-life, and only the last step (1834) with the present people or inhabitants has 
proved of benefit. And if such regulations of the company continue for fifteen years (i. e ., until 1849), it may be 
truly said that then the seal-life will be attracted quite rapidly, under the careful direction of headmen, so that iu 
quite a short time a handsome yield may be taken every year. In connection with this subject, if the company are 
moderate and these regulations are carried out, the seal-life will serve them and be depended upon, as shown in this 
volume, Table No. 2. 

Ideas of the old natives. — Nearly all the old men think and assert that the seals which are spared every 
year (" zapooskat fcofow"), i. e., those which have not been killed for several years, are truly of little use for breeding, 
lying about as if they were outcasts or disfranchised. About these seals, they show that after the seals were spared, 
they were always less than they should be, as, for instance, on the island of St. George, after two years of saving 
or sparing of 5,500 seals, in the first year they got, instead of 10,000, or 8,000 as expected, only 4,778. 

Why the seals diminished.— But this diminution, which is shown in the most convincing manner, is due to 
wrong and injustice, because it would not have been otherwise with any kind of animals — even cattle would have 
been exterminated — because a great many here think and count that the seal-mother brings forth her young in her 
third year, i.e., the next two years after her own birth. As it is well shown here, the spared seals (" zapooslic ") 
were not more than three years old, and therefore it was not possible to discern the correct and true numbers as 
they really were. Taking the females killed by the people, together with all the seals which were purposely spared, 
it was seen that the seal-mothers did not begin to bear earlier than the fifth year of their lives. Illustrative of this 
is the following : 

(a) On the island of St. George, after the first "zapooka", in 1828, the killing of five-year-old seals was 
continued gradually up to five times as many as at first. With those of five years old the killing stopped. Then 
next year twelve times as many six-year-olds were observed on the islands, as compared with their number of the 
last year, and with or iu the seventh year came seven times as many. This shows that females born in 182S did 
not begin to bear young until their fifth year, and become with young accordingly; that the large ones did not 
appear or come in six years (from 1828), as is evident, for in the fifth year all the females did not bring forth. 

(b) It is known that the male seals cannot become " seecatchies" {adult bulls) earlier than their fifth or sixth 
year ; following this, it may be said that the female bears earlier than the fourth year. 

(c) If the male seal cannot become a bull (" seecatchie ") earlier than the fifth year, then, as Buflfon remarks, 
" animals can live seven times the length of the period required for their maturity"; therefore, a "seecatch" cannot 
live less than thirty years, and a female not less than twenty-eight..* 

Veniaminov's belief that females cannot bear young until four years old. — Taking the opinion 
of Buffon for ground in saying, that animals do not come to their full maturity uutil one-seventh of their lives has 
passed, it goes also to prove that the female seal cannot bear young before her fourth year. 

It is, without doubt, a fact that female seals do not begin to bear young before their fifth year, i. c, the next 
four years after the one of their birth, and not in the third or fourth year. That, however, is not the rule, but the 
exception. To make it more apparent that females caunot bear young in their third year, consider two-year-old 
females, and compare them with "seecatchie" (adult bulls) and cows (adult females), and it will be evident to all 
that this is impossible. 

Do the females bear young every year ; and how often in their lives do they bring forth I 

His doubts on the subject. — To settle this question is very difficult, for it is impossible to make any 
observations upon their movements; but I think that the females, in their younger years (or prime), bring forth 
every year, and as they get older, every other year; thus, according to people accustomed to them, they may each 
bring forth in their whole lives from ten to fifteen young, and even more. This opinion is founded on the fact that 
never (except iu one year, 1832) have an excessive number of females been seen without young; that cows not 
pregnant hardly ever come to the Pribylov islands ; that such females cannot be seen every year. As to how large 
a number of females do not bear, according to the opinions and personal observations of the old people, the following 
may be depended upon with confidence: not more than one-fifth of the mature or "effective" females are without 
young ; but to avoid erroneous impressions or conflicting statements between others and myself, I have had but one 
season ( u trayt v ) in which to personally observe and consider the multiplication of seals. 

* "This remark is sustained by the observation of old men, and especially by one of the best Creoles, Shicsneekov, who was on tho 
island of St. Paul in 1317, and who knows of one "seecatch " (known by a bald head), which in that time had already a large- herd of 
cows or females, surrounded and hunted by a like number of females and strong, savage old bulls ; therefore, it may lie safely thought that 
this bull did not get his growth until his fifth year, and at this time he could not have been less than ten years old. And this same bull 
came every year to the island and the same place for fifteen years iu succession, up to 1832, and it was only in the later years that his 
harem grew smaller and smaller in number." 



142 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

His thoughts on birth of pups. — There is one more very important question in the consideration of the 
breeding or the increase of seals, and that is, of the number of young seals born in one year, how many are males ; 
and is the number of males always the same in proportion to the females? 

Judging from the "holluschickie" accumulated from the " zapooska" in lS22-'24 on the island of St. Paul, and 
in 182G-'27 on the island of St. George, the number of young males was widely variable; for example, on the island 
of St. Paul, in three years, 11,000 seals were spared, and in the following three years there were killed 7,000, i. e., 
about two-thirds of the number saved ; opposed to this, on the island of St. George, from 8,500 seals spared in two 
years, less than 3,000 were taken — hardly one-third. 

Why this irregularity I Why should more young males be born at one time, and at another less? Or why 
should there be years in which many cows do not bear young ? 

According to the belief of the people here, I think that of the number of seals boru every year, half are males 
and as many females [i. e., tlie other half). 

Table No. I : Its use. — To demonstrate the above-mentioned conditions of seal-life, the table No. I has been 
formed of the number of seals annually killed on the Pribylov islands, from 1817 to 1838 (when this work -was ended). 

From this it will be seen that — 

1. No single successive year presents a good number of seals killed, as compared with the previous year; the 
number is always less. 

2. The annual number of seals killed was not in a constant ratio. 

3. And, therefore, in the regular hunting-season there is less need or occasion, during the next fifteen years, to 
demand the whole seal kind. 

4. Fewer seals were killed in those years, generally, following a previous year in which there were larger 
numbers of the "holluschickie"; that is, when the young males were not completely destroyed, and more were killed 
when the number of "holluschickie" was less. 

5. The number of "holluschickie" is a true register or showing of the number of seals; i.e., if the "holluschickie" 
increase and exist like the young females, and conversely. 

6. "Holluschickie" break from the (common) herd and gather by themselves no earlier than the third year, 
as seen in the case of the spared seals on the islands of St. George and St. Paul, the latter from 1822-'24 to 
lS35-'37, inclusive; the former from 1826->27. 

7. The number of seals killed on the island of St. George, after two years ("zapooska") was resumed, and 
gradually increased to five times as many. 

8. In the fifth year from the first "zapooskie" (or saving) it became possible to count or reckon on the number 
remaining, and six-year-olds began to appear twelve times as numerous, and seven-year-olds came in numbers 
sevenfold greater than their previous small number; and, therefore, the number of three-year-old seals was quite 
constant. 

9. If on the island of St. George, in 1826-'27, the seals had not had this rest ("zapooslca"), and the killing had 
been continued, even at the diminished ratio of one-eighth, in 1S40 or 1842 there would not have been a single seal 
left, as appears by the following table : 



Seals. 

1825 5,500 

1826 4,400 

1827 3,520 

1828 2,816 

1829 2,468 

1830 2,160 

1831 1,890 

1832 1,554 



Seals. 

1833 1,360 

1834 1,190 

1835 1,040 

1836 850 

1837 700 

1838 -' 580 

1839 500 

1840 400 



10. Eesults op the "zapooska". — Following two years of "zapoopka" (saving), the seal-life is enhanced for 
more than ten years, and the loss sustained by the company in the time of " zapooskov" (about 8,500) is made good 
in the long run. The case may be thus stated : if the company had not spared the seals in 1826-'27 they would 
have received, from 1826 to 1838 (twelve years), no more than 24,000, but by making this zapooska regulation for 
two years, they got in ten years 31,570, and, beyond this, they can yet take l.%000 without another, or any, zapooska. 

11. And in this case, where such an insignificant number of seals was spared on St. George (about 8,500), and 
in such a short time (two years), the result was at once significant every year; that is, three times more appeared 
thau the number spared. The result, therefore, must be large annually on the island of St. Paul, where, in 
consequence of the last orders or directions of the governor, already four years of saving have been in force, in 
which time over 30,000 seals have been left for breeding. 

On this account, and in conformity with the above, I here present a table, a prophecy of the seals that are to 
come in the next fifteen years from 7,060 seals saved on the island of St. Paul in 1835. 

On the island of St. Paul, at the direction of the governor, a "zapoosk" or saving was made of 12,700 seals; 
that is, before the year 1834 there were killed 12,700 seals, and on the following year, if this saving had not been 



THE FUR SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



143 



made, according to the testimony of the inhabitants, no more than 12,200 seals would or could have been taken from 
the islands, it being thought that this number (12,200) was only one twenty-fifth of the whole ; but instead of killing 
12,200, only 4,0.32 were taken, leaving in 1S35, for breeding, 8,118 fresh young seals, males and females, together. 

In making this hypothetical table of seals that are to come, I take the average killing, that is, one-eighth part, 
and proceed on the supposition that the number of saved seals will not be less than 7,060. 

In the number of 7,0C0 seals we can calculate upon 3,000 females ; that is, a slight majority of males. With the 
new females born under this "zapooska" I place half of those born the first year, and so on. 

Females, in the twelve or eighteen years next after their birth, must become less in number from natural causes, 
and by the twenty second year of their lives they must be quite useless for breeding. 

Of the number of seals which may be born during the next four years of "zapooska", or longer, we may take 
half for females. This number is included in the table, and the males, or u holluschickie", make up the total. 

Table No. II : Its showing. — From the table II observe that — * 

1. Old females, that is, those which in 1835 were capable of bearing young, in 1S50 must be oanceled (minus). 
They probably die in proportion of one-eighth of the whole number every year. 

2. For the first four years of "zapooska", until the new females begin to bear, their number will be generally 
less. 

3. A constant number of seals will continue during the first six years of their "zapooska" ; in twelve, these seals 
will double ; in fourteen years they will have increased threefold ; and after fifteen years of this " zapooska" or saving 
of 7,000, in the first year, 21,000 may be taken from them ; in the second, 28,000 ; in the third, 32,000 ; iu the fourth, 
3G,000 ; in the fifth, 41,000 ; thus in five years more than 100,000 can be taken. Then, under the supervision of 
persons who will see that one-fifth of the seals be steadily spared, 32,000 may be taken every year for a long time. 

4. Moreover, from the production of fifteen years' " zapooska", there can be taken from 00,000 to 70,000 
"holluschickie", which, together with 160,000 seals, makes 230,000. 

5. If this " zapooska " for the next fifteen years is not made for the seal-life, diminution will certainly ensue, and 
all this time, with all possible effort, no more than 50,000 seals will be taken. 

Here it should be said that this hypothetical table of the probable increase of seals is made on the supposition 
of the decrease of females, and an average is taken accordingly. Furthermore, on the island of St. Paul, in 
1836-'37, instead of 7,900 seals being killed, but 4,800 were taken. Hence, it follows that these 1,500 females thus 
saved in two years, and which are omitted from the table, will also make a very significant addition to the incoming 
seals, t 



Table I, Part II. 



-Bishop Veniaminor's Zapieska, etc., showing the seal-catch during the period of gradual diminution of life on the islands, from 

1817 down to 1837. 



Taken from — 


1817. 


1818. 


1819. 


1820. 


1821. 


1822. 


1823. 


1824. 


1825. 


1826. 


1827. 




47, 860 
12, 328 


45, 932 
13, ny 


40, 300 
11,9:5 


39,700 
10. 520 


35, 750 
9,245 


28,150 
8,319 


24,100 
5,773 


19, 850 
5,550 


24,600 
5,500 


23,250 


17, 750 










60,188 


59, 856 


52, 225 


50,220 


44,995 


30, 469 


29, 873 


25, 400 


30, 100 


23,250 


19, 700 




Taken from — 


1828. 


1829. 


1830. 


1831. 


1832. 


1833. 


1834. 


1835. 


1836. 


1837. 




18,450 
4,778 


17, 150 
3,661 


15, 200 
2,834 


12, 950 
3,064 


13, 150 
3,290 


13, 200 

3,212 


12, 700 

3,051 


4,052 
2,528 


4,040 
2,550 
















23, 228 


20,811 


18, 034 


10, 034 


16, 446 


16,412 


15, 751 


6,580 


6,590 









Grand total for Saint Paul islind 464, 259 

Grand total for Saint George island 114, 605 



Total catch during nineteen years of diminution 578, 924 



*The reader, in following the calculations of the Bishop, as exhibited by this table, must not forget to bear in ruind, as he runs it 
over, that, it is arranged with a sliding scale of increase, that counts steadily down from 1840 to 1849; and also, a sliding down scale of 
decrease, by reason of natural death-rates, that works steadily across these figures of increase just specified. — H. W. E. 

1 1 translate this chapter of Veniamiuov's without abridgment, although it is full of errors, to show that while the Russians gave this 
matter evidently much thought at headquarters, yet they failed to send some one on to the ground, who, by first making himself acquainted 
with the habits of the seals from close observation of their lives, should then be fitted to prepare rules and regulations founded npon this 
kuowledge. These suggestions of Veniamiuov were, however, a vast improvement on the work as it was conducted, and they were 
adopted at once; but it was not until 1845 that the great importance of never disturbing the breeding-seals was recognized. — H. W. E. 

t Left to breed. 



144 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Table II. — Showing the number of seals that will visit the island in the next twenty-two years — a prophecy made by Veniaminov in 1834. 





Years. 


1. 


2. 


3. 


4. 


5. 


0. 


7. 


8. 


9. 


10. 


11. 


12. 


13. 


14. 


15. 


16. 


17. 


18. 


19. 


20. 


21. 


22. 




1835. 


1836. 


1837. 


1838. 


1839. 


1840. 


1841. 


1842. 


1843. 


1844. 


1845. 


1846. 


1847. 


1848. 


1849. 


1850. 


1851. 


1852. 


1853. 


1854. 


1855. 


1856. 


1 


1835.... 
1836.... 


3,600 




3,150 







2,755 








900 


1,200 
785 


1,200 

1,050 

680 


1,200 

1,050 

918 

600 


1,200 

1,050 

918 

805 

450 

•ivals.. 


1,200 
1,050 
918 
805 
700 
450 
152 


1,200 
1,050 
918 
805 
700 
615 
200 
315 
420 


1,200 
1,050 
918 
805 
700 
615 
200 
525 
572 
325 
650 


1,200 
1,050 
918 
805 
700 
615 
200 

525 
572 

451 

909 
258 
880 


1,200 
1,050 
918 
805 
700 
615 
200 

525 

572 

451 
909 
376 

1,188 
225 

1,020 


1,000 
1,050 
918 
805 
700 
615 
200 
525 
572 

451 
909 

376 
1,188 

300 
1,440 

180 
1,240 


800 

1,000 
918 
805 
700 
615 
200 
525 
572 
451 
909 
376 

1,188 
300 

1,440 
241 

1,687 
125 

1,500 


400 
700' 
900 
805 
700 

615 

200 

525 
572 
451 
909 
376 

1,188 
300 

1,440 
241 

1,687 
190 

1,994 
100 

1,810 


200 

300 

600 

805 

700 

615 
200 

525 
572 
451 
909 
376 

1,188 
300 

1,440 
241 

1,687 
190 

1,994 
143 

2,420 
61 

2,254 








2 


100 
300 
750 
700 
615 
200 

525 
572 

451 

909 

376 
1,188 

300 
1,440 

241 
1,087 

190 
1,994 

143 

2,420 

83 

2,908 

25 

2,550 














10 
500 
600 
600 
150 
525 
572 
451 
909 
376 
1,188 

300 
1,440 

241 
1,687 

190 
1,994 

143 

2,420 

83 

2,908 

40 

3,187 










2,410 








300 
400 
500 












2,110 

New. 


















<: 


1,845 
900 


1,580 
1,985 


From 
From 


oldar 












( 
\ 


new comers. . 


100 
500 






1,355 
2,930 
















t 


Total 


new.. 


From 


new ones 


500 
451 


R 




1,130 
3,768 


















( 


Total 
[ 


new.. 


From new ones 


909 




Total 


new.. 


900 
4,423 










1844.... 












( 


From 


new ones 


1,188 




Total 

s 


new.. 


725 
5,275 




38 




















( 


Fiom 


new on 


1,440 








580 
6,225 


From 










1846.... 
















t 


Total 
\ 


new... 




1,687 








430 
7,560 










1847.... 


















< 


Total i 


From new ones 

l.___ . 


1,994 




Total i 
\ 


lew . . . 


250 
9,083 










1848.... 




















I 




2,420 


14 






100 
10, 654 








1849 






















I 


Total i 


lew . . . 


2,908 






lew . . . 






































1 


3,187 




















Total J .... 
Total cf .... 


3,600 3,150 
3, 460 3, 150 


2,755 
2,755 


2,410 
2,410 


2,110 
2,110 


2,745 
2,745 


3,565 
3,435 


4,285 
4,215 


4,898 
4,102 


5,323 
5,378 


6,000 
6,000 


6,805 
6,795 


7,990 
8,010 


9,333 
9,267 


10,754 
10, 746 


12, 369 
12, 331 


14, 153 
14, 147 


16, 148 
16, 102 


18, 216 
18,184 


20, 820 
20, 824 


20, 105 
20, 095 


19, 358 
19, 342 


All 






5,510 






8,500 


9,700 




16, 000 


18,600 


21, 500 


24, 700 


28, 300 


32, 250 


36, 400 


41,640 


40, 200 


38, 700 


















' 





From this table behold that — 

a. Every fifteen years, from 3,600 females, there caD be received in sixteen years 24,700 seals ; in sixteen years 
still more; and in twenty years 41,640. 

b. In the twenty-first year the incomes begin to diminish, provided that if in the meantime, or the following 
sixteen years, a certain number of young seals are not left to breed; and if every year a known number are left 
to breed, then in all following years the yield will never be less than 20,000 every year. 

Table III. — Calculation as to the talcing of the seals on the island of St, George, made up from two years, and based upon that experience. 

(1827-'28.) 



Tear. 


1. 2. 


3. 


4. 


5. 


6. 


7. 


8. 


9. 


10. 


11. 


12. 


Grand 


1826. 


1827. 


1828. 


1829. 


1830. 


1831. 


1832. 


1833. 


1834. 


1835. 


1836. 


1637. 


totaL 


1.— 1826 


2,200 
Breeding.. 










450 


700 
360 
700 


700 
600 
550 


700 
600 
400 


700 
600 
250 


700 
600 
100 


700 
600 
50 




2.— 1827 


2.050 










3.— 1828 


1,700 


1,500 


1,200 


1,000 




















1,450 


1,760 
1,760 


1,850 
1,800 


1,700 
1,700 


1,550 
1,500 


1,400 
1,500 

2,900 


1,350 
1,400 








2,200 


2,050 


1,600 


1,500 


1,200 










2,200 


2,050 


1,600 


1,500 


1,200 


1,450 


3,520 


3, 6.50 


3,400 


3,050 


2,750 


29, 270 





The actual taking of seals was as follows : 

Seals. 

In 1828 4,778 

In 1829 3,661 

In 1830 2,834 

In 1831 3,084 

In 1832 3,296 

In 1833 3,212 



Seals. 

In 1834 3,051 

In 1835 2,528 

In 1836 2,550 

In 1837 2,582 

Total 31,576 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 145 

From this table it will be seen that up to 1838 my calculation makes a yield of 29,270 seals ; while the actual 
result was 31,570 ; making a difference of 2,300. 

The difference determines that the hypothesis upon which the table is based is correct. 

31. VENIAMINOV'S ACCOUNT OP THE DISCOVERY OF THE PPJBYLOV ISLANDS.* 

Location and discovery. — Under the name of the Pribylov islands are known two small islands lying in 
Bering sea, between 50° and 57°*north latitude, and 108° and 170° west longitude. 

Stoorman G. Pribylov, who had been on the American coast for some time and observed the indications of 
islands in Bering sea, became convinced of their existence; and the embarassed circumstances of his company 
finally induced him to attempt their discovery. * * * He was considered one of the best navigators of that 
region. * * * For a long time he was in close vicinity to one of the islands subsequently named after him, but 
three weeks elapsed before he could get a sight of the same through the surrounding fog. At last fate or good 
fortune, coming to the assistauce of an enterprising man, raised the curtain of the fog, and the eastern headland 
of the island (Tolstoi Mees) nearest to the Aleutian archipelago rose up before the navigators, filling them with 
inexpressible joy. This island was named by them, after their ship, "St. George". The "predovehik" (or leader) 
of the expedition, Yeafeem Popov, with all the hunters on the vessel, lauded and remaiued on the newly-discovered 
island; but the vessel, failing to find any harbor, returned to winter at the Aleutian islands, carrying away a few 
fur-seals and sea-otters. The hunters who remained on the island of St. George sighted, on the 29th of June 
(Justinian calendar) of the following year (the day of the apostles Peter and Paul), an island to the northward, 
which they at once named ''Peter and Paul", but the name of Peter was subsequently dropped from common usage. 
These islands have borne, since their discovery, a variety of names. At first they were called simply ".Novie" 
(neic); the Pribylov; and the "predovehik" named them Laibdevskie (the principal shareholder of the company 
was Laibedev). Shellikov named them "Zubovie" (this icas the name of the minister of interior at that time, who was 
a partner and shareholder also); but among the hunters they attained the appellation of "Saivernie" (northern) on 
account of their situation north of Oonalashka, and "Kotovnie", or Seal-islands. At the present time (1838) thej T 
are often called simply "The Islands" in the colonies {i. e., Alaska and Kamtvhatka). The name of Pribylov, as the 
one most justly applied, should be used throughout. 

The change from summer to winter is abrupt. The number of clear days is exceedingly small. The sun is 
rarely visible between the 1st of May and the middle of August, and during nearly all that time it is impossible to 
see beyond the distance of a few fathoms ( u sajeens r ). For this reason these islands are so difficult to find, that out 
of twenty ships only one succeeded in reaching them by a straight course. Tbey are visible only during easterly 
winds for a brief period, * * * but the constant winds probably counteract the exhalations (from the carcasses). 
Und»r the present circumstances (1S38) it would be impossible to remedy the trouble ; to kill the animals at a 
greater distance from the village would require an increased number of laborers to pack the skins and meat ; and if 
the carcasses were burned, the smoke would probably drive away the animals, while there is neither soil nor labor 
sufficient to bury or to burn them. The latter process would also deprive the inhabitants of their fuel, as they 
employ bones and putrified meat for cooking purposes, in place of wood. 

The food supply is ample even to luxury, especially on the island of St. Paul. The labor is severe, but 
only temporary, and the inhabitants have a great deal of time for themselves. A majority of them employ their 
leisure hours very well, teaching themselves and their children the rudiments of the Russian and Aleutian grammar, 
and with such success that of late, under the administration of the Creole, Shiesneekov, nearly all the males on St. 
Paul have learned to read. These people are not only richer, but more active and energetic in their labor as well 
as in their pious faith, than are their Aleutian brethren elsewhere ; and altogether the inhabitants of St. Paul may 
be called the first among the Aleuts. 

On account of the value of fur-seal and sea-otter skins shipped from these islands since their discovery, and 
up to the present time (1838), they might be called the "Golden islands", without estimatmg the 125,000 blue foxes 
and 50,000 sea-otters shipped from there during the first thirty years (after their discovery). 

The villages as they were in 1838.— The first and most important settlement was situated at the 
southwestern extremity of the island (Zapadnie). The second, which is the present site, on the southeastern point 
( Village Hill). In the village of to-day (183S) there is a wooden chapel in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul, 
erected in 1821, and nicely ornamented in the interior, at the expense of the resident Aleuts; a dwelling for the 
manager; a store, and a magazine, all built like the church, of neatly -dressed drift logs. In addition to this, there 
is a "kozarmie" (barracoon) built alter the fashion of Aleutian "oolaghamuh" (or large, communistic, underground 
habita:ions) houses, a few private dwellings, and thirteen native barrabaras. A small wind-mill has been added of 
late. 

* Translated, by the author, from Bishop Innocent Yeniaminov's work, Zapieska ob Ostrorah Oonahlanltkenskaho Otdayla : St. 

Petersburg, 1840. The only Russian treatise upon the subject found. Those selections most pertinent to the subject are introduced abovp 
in my translation. The italics are mine, and explanatory. — H. W. E. 
10 



146 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

The inhabitants subsist principally upon the flesh of fur-seals and sea-lions, with the addition of roots and a 
little flour. In the summer time, between June and .September, halibut and some cod are caught around the shore, 
and altogether the living of these Aleuts is excellent and even luxurious, compared with that of their neighbors. 
The station is supplied with provisions and trading-goods from Sitka, the ship arriving annually in June and July. 
As there is no safe harbor, these vessels must receive and discharge their cargoes under sail. 

In former years, up to 1820 or 1S21, those islands were under the control of the Oonalashka office. The 
manager of St. Paul was, until the year 1S.34, also in charge of St. George, visiting the latter island every spring in 
a bidarkie; and, though these navigators cannot see from one island to the other, their journeys have been usually 
successful, with the exception of three occasions— twice the small craft missed the island of St. George [going from 
St. Paul), and pushed on to the coast of the Alaskan peninsula, where they Anally secured a landing ; and in the 
third instance, the bidarrah was lost altogether. 

On the island of St. George there was no bay or entrance, with the exception of a shallow bight near the village 
(Zapadnie). This settlement contains a wooden chapel erected in honor to St. George, log buildings occupied by 
the agent of the company and his servants, and a number of barrabaras. * * * The inhabitants are, however, 
in less comfortable circumstances than those of St. Paul. Of provisions, they have a great abundance of sea lion 
meat, sea-birds and their eggs. The eggs are obtained by lowering a person over the precipitous cliffs, by means 
of seal- skin ropes. Many perish in this attempt from the friction of the strands against the sharp edges of the rocks; 
and occasionally the foxes have been known to gnaw off the ropes on which the hunters were suspended. 

Occasionally shocks of earthquakes* still remind us of the volcanic origin of the Pribylov islands. Very 
heavy ones occurred repeatedly in April on both islands, when many overhanging cliffs were thrown into the sea. 
The inhabitants of the Pribylov islands belong to the parish of Oonalashka, the priest of which is obliged to visit 
them once every two years (to marry, baptize, etc). These islands were not known before the year 1780 ; mate 
G. Pribylov,t then in the service of a swan-hunting company, first, in the Russian name, found them, but at the 
same time he was not the first discoverer, because, as before said (Part I, chap. 1,) on one of them (southwest side 
of St. Paul) signs, such as a pipe, brass knife-handle, and traces of fire, were found, indicating that people had 
been there before, but not long, as places were observed where the grass had been burned and scorched. But if 
we can believe the Aleuts in what they relate, the islands were known to them long before they were visited by 
the Russians. They knew and called them "Ateek", after having heard about them. 

Eegad-dah-geek, a son of an Oonimak chief by the name of Ah-kak-nee-kak, was taken out to sea in a bidarkie 
by a storm, the wind blowing strong from the south. He could not get back to the beach, nor could he make any 
other landing, and was obliged to run before the wind three or four days, when he brought up on St. Paul 
island, north from the land which he had been compelled to leave. Here he remained until autumn, and became 
acquainted with the hunting of different animals. Elegant weather one day setting in, he saw the peaks of 
Oonimak. He then resolved to put to sea, and return to receive the thanks of his people there; and, after three 
or four days of traveling, he arrived at Oonimak, with many otter tails and snouts.f 

No vegetation on the islands. — The islands were both at first without vegetation, with the exception of 
St. Paul, where there was a small talneelc creeping along on the ground ; and on St. George, if we believe the 
accounts of the first ones there to see, nothing grew, even grass, except on the places where the carcasses of dead 
animals rotted. In the course of time both islands were covered with grass, a great part of it being of the sedge 
kind. On them are two varieties of berries, etc., etc. 

Early status of the colonists. — The Aleuts serving the company here sustained the following relations 
between themselves and it, to wit : each of them worked without solicitation and at whatever was found, and to 
which they were directed, or at that which they understood. Payment for their tod was not established by the day 

* These shocks probably occurred in 1796-'97, when Boga Slov island was raised, in April or May of that year, from the bed of Bering 
sea, 170 miles directly south of St. George. Such earthquakes were also characteristic of those sub-tropical fur-seal islands, Juau 
Fernandez and Masafuera. — H. W. E. 

tGehrman Pribylov, the discoverer of the seal-islands, was a native of "old Russia"; his fatherwas one of the surviving sailors of the 
"St. Peter", which was wrecked, with Bering in command, November 4, 1741, on Bering island. The only reference, which I can find 
to him, is the vague incidental expressions used here and there, throughout an extended series of lengthy Russian letters published by 
Techmainov, as illustrative of the condition of affairs in regard to the Russian American Company. Pribylov was, when cruising, in 
1783-88, for the rumored seal-grounds, merely the first mate of the sloop "St. George". The captain and part owner was one'M. Zubov, 
who was a member of a trading association then quite well organized in Alaska, and known as the " Laibedev Laslochin" company. It 
does not appear that Pribylov took any part in the business of sealing, other thau that of remaining in charge of the company's vessels. 
He died while in discharge of these duties, at Sitka, March, 179b', on his ship, "The Three Saints" ("Tree Svaytoi"). 

Pribylov, himself, called these islands of his discovery, after Znbov ; but the Russians then, and soon, unanimously indicated the 
group by its present well deserved title, " Ostrovie Pribylora." — H. W. E. 

t Here Veniaminov says that he does feel inclined to believe this story, as the peaks of Oonimak can be seen occasionally from St. 
Paul. I have no hesitation in saying that they were never observed by any mortal eye from the Pribylov group. The wide expanse of 
water between these points, and the thick, foggy air of Bering sea, especially so at the season mentioned in this story above, will always 
make the mountains of Oonimak invisible to the eye from St. Paul island. A mirage is almost an impossibility; it may have been much 
more probable if the date was a winter one.— H. \V. E. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 147 

or by the year, but iu general for each thing taken by them or standing or put to their credit by the company; for 
iustauce, especially the skins of animals, the teeth of walrus, barrels of oil, etc. These sums, whatever they might 
be, were placed by the company to their credit, for all general hunting and working was established or fixed for the 
whole year fairly. The Aleuts, in general, received no specific wages, though they were not all alike or equal, there 
being usually three or four classes. 

In these classes, to the last or least, the sick and old workmen were counted, although they were only 
burdens, and therefore they received the smaller shares, about 150 rubles, and the other and better classes received 
from 220 to 250 rubles a year. Those who were zealous were rewarded by the company with 50 to 100 rubles. The 
wives of the Aleuts, who worked only at the seal-hunting, received from 25 to 35 rubles.* 

ANI3IALS ON the Pribylov islands. — Foxes and mice. Sometimes the ice brings bears and red foxes. 
The bears were never allowed to live, since they could not be made useful ; and also the red foxes, as they would 
only spoil the bleed already existing, with regard to color of the fur. 

Fur-seals, sea- lions, hair-seals, and a few walrus are the only animals that may be said to belong to the Pribylov 
islands. 

Birds. — The guillemots (or arries) ; gulls; puffins; crested, horned, and white-breasted auks; snow-finches; 
geese (two kinds) ; a few kinds of Tringa ; sea-ducks, black and gray. Most of these birds come here to lay, and 
with them jagers, hawks, owls, and "chikees" (big Lanes glaucus), and the albatross is frequently to be seen 
around the beaches. 

Sea-otters became scarce generally in 1811, and in the next thirty years extinct. 

The fur-seals (" sea-cats") astonish us by their great numbers, as they gradually come up on to their breeding- 
places, notwithstanding harsh and foolish treatment of them, continued almost half a century (until 1824), without 
mercy. 

Kussian waste and slaughter. — In the first years, on St. Paul island, from 50,000 to 60,000 were taken 
annually, and on St. George from 40,000 to 50,000 every year. Such horrible killing was neither necessary nor 
demanded. The skins were frequently taken without any list or count. In 1803, S00,000 seal-skins had 
accumulated, and it was impossible to make advantageous sale of so many skins ; for in this great number so 
many were spoiled that it became necessary to cut or throw into the sea 700,000 pelts. If G. Eesanov (our minister 
to Japan) had not given this his attention, and put himself between the animals and this foolish management of 
them, it appears plainly to me that these creatures would have long ago changed for the worse. 

No records prior to 1S17: Earlt driving. — Of the number of skins taken up to 1S17, 1 have no knowledge 
to rely upon, but from that time and up to the present writing, I have true and reliable accounts, which I put iu the 
appendix to this volume. From these lists it will be seen that still in 1820, on both islands, there were killed more 
than 50,000 seals, viz, on St. Paul, 39,700; and on St. George, 10,250. There were eye-witnesses to the reason for 
this diminution of the seals, and it is only wonderful, beside, that they are still existing, as they have been treated 
almost without mercy so many years. The cows produce only one pup each, every year. They have known deadly 
enemies, and also are still exposed to many foes unknown. From this killing of the seals they steadily grew less, 
except on one occasion, which was on St. George island, where an opportunity was given suddenly to kill a large 
number; but the circumstances do not seem to be important. On one occasion a drive was made of 15,000 male and 
female seals, but the night was dark, and it was not practicable to separate the cows from the males, and they were, 
therefore, allowed to stand over until daylight should come. The men pat in charge of the herding of the drove were 
careless, and the seals took advantage of this negligence, and made an attempt to escape by throwing themselves 
from the bluffs over the beach near by into the sea ; but, as this bluff was steep, high, rough, and slippery, they 
fell over and were all injured. Now, for the first time, great numbers of seals were missed, and why, it was not 
significant or apparent ; but in the following year, instead of the appearance and catch of 40,000 or 50,000, less 
than 30,000 were killed and taken, and then, too, the numbers of seals were known to diminish, and in the same 
way, only greater, on the other island. For instance, in the first years, on the island of St. George, the seals were 
only five or six times less than on St. Paul, but in 1S17 they were only less than one-fourth ; but in 182G they 
were almost one-sixth again. 

The diminution of seals there (St. Paul) and on the other island, from 1817 to 1835, was very gradual and 
visible every year, but not always equal. 

The killing of seals in 1834, instead of being 80,000 or 60,000, was only 15,751 from both islands (St. Paul, 
12,700; St. George, 3,051). 

Sun total of fur seals taicen. — In the first thirty years (according to Veniaminov's best understanding), 

* Compare this annual payment of tbe Russians with the cash settlement made every year by the Alaska Commercial Company, the 
present lessee of these islands, as indicated by a prior chapter on the condition of the business there. — H. W. E. 



148 THE FISHERIES OF THE 'UNITED STATES. 

there were taken "more than two and a half millions of seal-skins"; then, in the next twenty-one years, up to 1838, 
they took 578,924. During this last taking, from 1817 to 1S38, the skins were worth on an average "no more than 
30 rubles each" ($6 apiece).* 

A great many sea-otters (Enhydra marina) were found on St. Paul island at first, and as many as 5,000 
were taken from the island, but years have passed since one has been seeu in the vicinity, even, of the islands. 

32. HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE RUSSIAN- AMEBIC AN FUR COMPANY. 

Pribylov islands pass into its control. — The mention made by Veniaminov, of the occupation of the 
Pribylov islands immediately after their discovery by a score or so of rival traders and their butchering suites, 
is authentic; it is uot necessary to paint the selfish details of the mercenary crews, as I find them drawn by several 
Slavic chroniclers. In 1799 the whole territory of Alaska went into the control of the Russian-American Company, 
and a picture of this organization, which managed affairs on the seal-islands for sixty-seven long years, may be 
interesting in this connection. 

Causes op early Russian fur-trade. — The accidental circumstances connected with Bering's ill-fated 
voyage in 1741, were the first direct means of impetus given to Russian exploration and trade in the waters of the 
North Pacific and Bering sea ; the skins of the sea-otter and the blue foxes, in especial, which the survivors took 
from Bering island back to Kamtchatka and Russia, sold for such high prices that it stimulated a large number of 
hardy, reckless men to scour those seas in search of fur-bearing lands. This trade, thus commenced, was for many 
years carried on by individual adventurers, each of whom acted alternately as a seaman, as a hunter, and as a 
trader, solely for his individual profit. 

Inception of the Russian-American Company. — At length, however, an association was formed in 1785, 
among a number of Siberian merchants, to carry on the fur-trade of the North Pacific. It received the protection 
and encouragement of the Empress Catherine, who bestowed upon it many valuable privileges. G. Shellikov was 
the ruling spirit of the corporation. Catherine's son and successor, Paul, was at the outset of his reign, disposed 
to abolish these imperial advantages extended to this company, by his mother, on account of the heartless conduct 
of affairs in Alaska. Reasons of state, however, caused him to abandon this resolution ; aud he issued a " ukase " 
dated July 8, 1799, which granted to those united merchants, aforesaid, a charter, under the title of the Russian- 
American Company, that gave them exclusive use and control, for a period of twenty years, of all the coasts of 
America on the Pacific and the islands in that ocean, from Bering straits to the 55th degree of south latitude, 
together with the right of occupying any other territories not previously possessed by civilized nations. The residence 
of the directors of this company was first fixed at Irkutsk, Siberia, which was the great depository or bonded 
warehouse for the Chinese trade with all the Russias, a short distance only from Kiachta, on the frontier, where the 
Mongols and Muscovites alone could meet for barter; it was, afterward, transferred to St. Petersburg, and these 
directors were personally made known to and placed under the surveillance of the Imperial Department of Commerce. 

Those privileges, thus accorded by Paul, were confirmed and extended, even, by Alexander; and under these 
favorable auspices the power and influence of the Russian -American Company rapidly advanced. In 1803 its 
establishments extended from Attoo to Sitka ; during 1806 preparations were made to occupy the littoral regions 
north of the Columbia river, but that plan was soon abandoned. 

Autocratic power of the Russian-American Company. — The government of Alaska by this company 
was arranged and directed in simple despotism ; each trading post was superintended by a Russian overseer or 
" precashcheek", who, with the aid of a small number of Russians, maintained absolute control over all the natives 
iu his district; he compelled them to labor incessantly, in and out of season, for the benefit of the company; these 
overseers were iu turn under abject subserviency to a chief agent, one of which resided in the limits of four natural 
divisions of the country ; those men were again directly responsible to the authority of the governor-general who 
resided at Sitka, and who was appointed really by the imperial government, though nominally by the directors; 
his powers were supposed to be limited and defined by regulations drawn up and signed by him in St. Petersburg; 
but, in fact, they were absolute, and irresponsible to any court on earth. 

The iron-willed Baranov. — The person who filled the office of governor-general soon after the organization 
of the Russian-American Company and for many years afterward, was Alexander Baranov ; he was a man of iron 
will, of dauntless courage, shrewd and wholly devoid of tender feeling ; under his autocratic management the 
affairs of this company prospered pecuniarily, and its stock rose accordingly in value; hence his proceedings were 
always approved at St. Petersburg, although the truth in regard to his cruelty was often made known there. 

Bad reputation of promyshleniks. — In addition to the natives themselves, the company transported 
to Alaska some four or five hundred Russians, who were termed "promyshleniks", or "hunters". They were 
employed as trappers, fishermen, seamen, soldiers or mechanics, just as their superiors might command, and they 

*These quotations aro in the Alaskan currency of that period, and refer to paper or parchment "rubles", each worth about 20 cents 
specie. See table of Russian weights, values, etc., in the Glossary. — H. W. E. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



149 



were under the same rule as that I have just described as applicable to the natives ; their lot, according to 
Paul von Krusensteru, a Russian who voyaged thither in 1804-1805, seems to have been more uninviting even 
than that of the wretched natives. 

Baranov's attempt to colonize California. — Prior to 1812, Sitka was the extreme southern limit of the 
Russian-American Company. But old Barauov, greatly annoyed over the loss of supply ships from the Okotsk, by 
which their bread, at Kadiak and Sitka, was cut oft* for years at a time, determined to settle at some place south, 
where these necessaries to a comfortable physical existence could be raised from the soil ; so he asked of the 
Spanish governor at Monterey permission to erect a few houses on the shore of the small bay at Bodega, California, 
in order to "procure and salt the meat of the wild cattle" which overran that part of the country, north of the 
harbor of San Francisco, for the "use of the governor's table at New Archangel" (Sitka). The Castilian was happy 
to oblige a peer; but, in the lapse of three or four years after this permit was granted, the Russians had formed a 
huge settlement, built a fort, and had, in actuality, taken possession of the country. The Spanish governor first 
remonstrated, then commanded Barauov to move oft, in the name of his most Catholic majesty, the king of Spain. 
He discovered quickly, to his infinite chagrin, that the Russian had abused his confidence, and defied him. The 
Spaniard could not enforce his order, and Kuskov, the Russian deputy in charge at Bodega, openly taunted and 
resisted him. The Russian-American Company remained here practically unmolested, until 1842, when they sold 
their fixtures to General Sutter, a Swiss American, for 830,000, and vacated California. 

Attempt to secure the Sandwich islands — In 1815 Barauov, instead of feeling chilled by the California 
unpleasantness, then in full headway, turned his ambitious eyes to the Saudwich islands, aud actually despatched 
a vessel, or rather two of them, under the direction of Dr. Shaeffer, a German surgeon, who landed on Atooi, with 
one hundred picked Aleuts ; but they were, at the lapse of a year, so discouraged by the open opposition of the 
Russian government to this scheme, that they abandoned the project. 

Rapid decay of the Russian- Ajikrican Company after the death of Baranoy. — In 18G2, when the 
third extension of the twenty years' lease had expired, the affairs of the Russian-American Company were in a bad 
condition financially — deeply in debt, and the Imperial government was not disposed to renew the charter. This 
state of affairs gave rise, in 18C4-'G7, to negotiation with other trading organizations for the lease, which fiually 
culminated in the purchase of Alaska by our government July, 18G7. Such, in brief, was the Russian-American 
Company; it flourished under Barauov, but declined steadily to bankruptcy twenty years after his removal, when 
eighty years old, on account of extreme age, in 1818. In short, its great compeer, the Hudson Bay Company, was 
very much earlier initiated in the same manner June, 1670; then it finally organized with the Northwest Company 
under its present title, with renewed royal prerogatives and despotic sway over all British North America in 1821 ; 
it too has declined to a commercial cipher to-day, with its autocratic rights abolished long since; in 1857, I think; 
they were wholly rescinded ; its subsidence was due, however, to the constant increasing white settlement of its 
territory. 

33. METEOROLOGICAL ABSTRACT FOR THE MONTHS, FROM SEPTEMBER, 1872, TO APRIL, 1873, 

INCLUSIVE. 

[Being interesting as the exhibit of an unusually severe winter. Made by Chas. P. Fish, United States Signal Service, St. Paul island.] 



Character of observation. 



M.an of barometer, corrected 

Maximum of barometer, corrected 

Minimum of barometer, corrected 

Monthly range of barometer, corrected 

Greatest daily range of barometer, corrected 

Least daily range of barometer, corrected 

Mean daily range of barometer, corrected 

Mean of exposed thermometer 

l of exposed thermometer 

xposed thermometer 

Monthly range of exposed thermometer 

Greatest daily range of exposed thermometer . . . 

Least daily range of exposed thermometer 

Mean of maxima of exposed thermometer 

Mean of minima of exposed thermometer 

Mean daily range of exposed thermometer 



Months of record. 



CO 



29. 773 
30.46 
28.87 
1.59 
0.97 
0,03 
0.259 
44°. 2 
52° 



46°. 8 
41°. 8 
5°.0 



29. 512 
30.04 
28.51 
1.53 
0.97 
0.04 
0.293 
36°. 
40° 



29. 458 
30.23 
28.62 
1. 01 
0.87 
0.00 
0.339 
34°. 3 
41° 
23° 



31°.5 
4°. 7 



30.04 
28.05 
1.99 
0.80 
0.03 
0.249 
26°. 6 ■ 
37° 
4° 



Character of observation. 



Mo an relative humidity 

Maximum relative humidity 

Minimum relative humidity 

Prevailing wind 

Number of miles traveled by wind 

Mean daily velocity of wind 

Mean hourly velocity of wind 

Maximum hourly velocity of wind 

Proportion of cloudiness 

Amount of rain-fall, in inches — 

Greatest daily amount of rain-fall 

Amount of melted hail and snow (included in 
rain-fall) 

Number of days on which precipitation oc- 
curred 

Number of days on which hail or snow fell... 



Months of record. 



a 

2 

g. 

to 


| 
O 


a 
> 
1 


85.6 


83:9 


86.6 


100 


100 


100 


50 


65 


00 


N. 


N. 


s. 


9,138 


11, 872 


14, 539 


304.6 


383 


484.6 


12.7 


16 


20.2 


33 


42 


74 


92 


84 


78.9 


2.89 


3.08 


2.38 


0.85 


0.58 


0.31 


0.20 


0.91 


0.82 


30 


29 


27 


4 


15 


17 



16,644 
530. 5 
22.1 



2.99 
0.42 



150 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
34. METEOROLOGICAL ABSTRACT, ETC.— Continued. 



Character of observation. 



Mean of barometer, corrected 

Maximum of barometer, corrected 

Minimnm of barometer, corrected 

Monthly range of barometer, corrected 

Greatest daily raugo of barometer, corrected 
Least daily raugo of barometer, corrected — 

Mean daily range of barometer, corrected 

Mean of exposed thermometer 

Maximum of exposed thermometer 

Minimum of exposed thermometer 

Monthly range of exposed thermometer 

Greatest daily range of exposed thermometer 

Least daily range of exposed thermometer 

Mean of maxima of exposed thermometer — 

Mean of minima of exposed thermometer 

Mean daily range of exposed thermometer . . . 



Months of record. 



29. D.",3 
30.50 
29.32 
1.18 
0.58 
0.03 
0. 1!U 
15°.7 
34° 



18°. 9 
11°. 9 
7°. 



29. 507 
30.51 
28.26 
2.25 
0.95 
0.00 
0.421 
18°. 
34° 
-12° 



g 



29. 708 
30.31 
29.05 
1.26 
0.60 
0.05 
0.219 
12°.6 
35° 



17°. 1 
7°. 4 
9°. 7 



29. 769 
30.35 
29.00 
1.35 
0.73 
0.03 
0.242 
23°.9 
33° 



270.9 
190.4 



Character of observation. 



Mean relative humidity 

Maximum relative humidity 

Minimum relative humidity 

Prevailing wind 

Number of miles traveled by wind 

Mean daily velocity of wind 

Mean hourly velocity of wind 

Maximum hourly velocity of wind 

Proportion of cloudiness 

Amount of rain-fall, in inches 

Greatest daily amount of rain-fall 

Amount of melted hail and snow (included in 
rain-fall) 

Number of days on which precipitation oc- 
curred 

Number of days on which hail or snow fell. . . 



Mouths of record. 



100 

53 
ENE. 

17, 903 
577.5 

24.1 

43 

62.8 
0.96 



16, 046 
594.3 
24.8 



1.07 
4.87 



18, 007 
020.2 
25.84 



1.77 
0.50 



Classification of the winds. — The "winds, here, may be classified under two heads: Summer winds — 
Blowing fresh during June, July, and August, principally from the west-northwest, varied with light airs from the 
northeast, and a gale or two from the southwest, lasting a day or so. Winter tcinds— Stirring fresh, to gales, 
throughout September to June, principally from the northwest to north -northeast; the "boorgas", or snow and 
sleet storms, coining invariably from that direction. One or two heavy southeaster occur every fall, as a rule; 
in October generally; the brief lulls between blasts during this season are occupied by light southerly airs. 

The summer winds are always charged with fog; while the winter gales usually blow out clear, unless 
accompanied with sleety spicule or snow. In Siberia, Wrangell says that the southwest breezes are the coldest ; 
the north-northwest ones are such here. The southerly airs are mild; but, I never felt any especial warmth 
when exposed to them. 

Characteristics of Bering sea ice. — The descriptions which Wrangell, Demetri Laptev, and Hendenstroiu 
have given of the behavior, of the ice packs, between the Kolyma mouth and Cape Okelagskoi, were duplicated, in 
all their details, by the floes which envboned St. Paul during the winter of my residence there. On the 23d May, 
1873, the ice fields around the island seemed as solid and unbroken to every point of the compass as they had for 
the five months preceding; and night settled over them in this shape; early in the morning of the following day, 
I arose, and, judge of my pleasant astonishment in viewing the open waters of Bering sea on every hand; the only 
suggestions left of its icy fetters were the numerous scattered cakes of thickest floes, which bobbed about at wide 
intervals ; there was little or no strong wind attending this sudden dissolution. The decomposition of the ice had 
taken place so secretly that its final relegation to its original form was fairly accomplished almost instantly and 
simultaneously, and without warning to human eyes; the alternate layering of salt, in ocean water ice, accounts 
for this peculiar vanishing of sea floes. 

The failure of the barometer in Bering sea. — Pre-eminent among the many difficulties in the path of 
the mariner who may be cruising in Bering sea, is the fact that bis barometer, which gives such timely and 
intelligent signals of warning, or of confidence, everywhere on the high seas of the earth, is, up here, by some reason 
or other, wholly impotent; and does nothing to aid, and everything to confuse and distress the sailor. Captain M. 
C. Erskine assured me of this ; and his declaration is proof positive to my mind ; he is undoubtedly, by the long 
experience of more than fourteen consecutive seasons' sailing in and out of Bering sea, 18G7-1S80 (this year's trip 
will make his fifteenth summer in those waters), the most thoroughly posted man, living, in regard to the currents, 
tides, winds and waves of the northwest coast between San Francisco and Bering straits. 

With the exception of what Parry says in his narrative of his third voyage (1824), I do not find any specific 
mention made of this behavior of the barometer in the north; all of the arctic seamen, unquestionably, fully 
understand its utter worthlessness to them. Parry declares (Harper's Family Library, p. 66, vol. ii) "the indications 
of the barometer previous to and during this gale deserve to be noticed, because it is only about Cape Farewell that, 
in coming from the northward down Davis strait, this instrument begins to speak a language which has ever been 
intelligible to us as a weather-glass". 

During the course of my cruise in Bering sea, July-September, 1874, the barometer was carefully noted, and 
Captain Baker of the "Reliance" satisfied himself that the less attention he gave to it the better, as far as the 
success of our voyage was concerned. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 151 

34. THE METHOD OF DRESSING THE FUR-SEAL SKIN. 

How seal-skins ake deessed. — As a matter of interest to so large a proportion of onr people who delight 
in the possession of, or covet, a sealskin sacqne, I hare taken the liberty of republishing the following letter in a 
previous brochure; and, as it answers now equally well, in reply to the query as to how the natural seal-skin is 
tanned, plucked, and dyed so as to pass the ordeal of fashionable dress-parade, I herewith reproduce it, stating 
simply, in doing so, tbat the writer is a very successful operator, and one whose work, when finished from his hands, 
is said to be always equal, and often superior, to the best English manufacture. It was written to me in answer 
to my question, by the senior member of the firm undersigned : 

ALBANY, October 22, 1.-74. 

Sir: The Alaska Commercial Company sold in London, December, 1873, about 60,000 skins taken from the islands leased by our 
government, of the catch of 1873. The remainder of the catch, about 40,000, were sold in March. This company have made the collection 
of seal from these islands much more valuable than they were before their lease, by the care used by them in curing the skins and taking 
them only when in season. We have worked this class of seal for several years — when they were owned by the Kussiau American Fur 
Company, and during the Burst year they were owned by our government. 

When the skins are received by us in the salt, we wash off tbe salt, placing them upon a beam somewhat like a tanner's beam, removing 
the fat from the flesh side with a beaming-knife, care being required that no cuts or uneven places are made in the pelt. Tim skins are 
next washed in water and placed upon the beam with the fur up, and the grease and water removed by the knife. The skins are then 
dried by moderate heat, being tacked out on frames to keep them smooth. After being fully dried, they are soaked in water and thoroughly 
cleansed with soap and water. In some eases they can be unbailed without this drying process, and cleansed before drying. After tbe 
cleansing process they pass to the picker, who dries the fur by stove-heat, the pelt being kept moist. When the fur is dry he places the 
skin on a beam, and while it is warm he removes the main coat of hair with a dull shoe-knife, grasping the hair with his thumb and knife, 
the thumb being protected by a rubber cob. The hair must be pulled out, not broken. After a portion is removed the skin must bo 
again wanned at the stove, the pelt being kept moist. When the outer hairs have been mostly removed, he uses a beaming-knife to work 
out the finer hairs (which are shorter), and the remaining coarser hairs. It will be seen that great care must be used, as the skin is in 
that soft state that too much pressure of the knife would take the fur also; indeed, bare spots are made. Carelessly-cured skins are 
sometimes worthless on this account. The skins are next dried, afterward dampened on the pelt side, and shaved to a fine, even 
surface. They are then stretched, worked, anil dried; afterward softened in a fulling-mill, or by treading them with the bare feet in a 
hogshead, one head being removed and the cask placed nearly upright, into which the workman gets with a few skins and some fine, 
hardwood sawdnst, to absorb the grease while he dances upon them to break them into leather. If the skins have been shaved thin, as 
required when finished, any defective spots or holes must now be mended, the skin smoothed and pasted with paper on the. pelt side, or 
two pasted together to protect the pelt in dyeing. The usual process in the United States, is to leave the pelt sufficiently thick to protect 
thein without pasting. 

In dyeing, the liquid dye is put on with a brush, carefully covering the points of the standing fur. After lying folded, with the points 
touching each other, for some little time, the skins are hung up and dried. The dry dye is then removed, another coat applied, dried, and 
removed, and so on until the required shade is obtained. One or two of these coats of dye are put on much heavier and pressed down to 
the roots of the fur, making what is called the ground. From eight to twelve coats are required to produce a good color. The skins are 
then washed clean, tho fur dried, the pelt moist. They are shaved down to the required thickness, dried, working them some while 
drying, then softened in a hogshead, and sometimes run in a revolving cylinder with line sawdust to cleau them. The English process 
does not have the washing after dyeing. 

I should, perhaps, say that, with all the care used, many skins are greatly injured in the working. Quite a quantity of English dyed 
seal-skins were sold last season for 817, damaged in the dye. 

The above is a general process, but we are obliged to vary for different skins. Those from various parts of the world require different 
treatment; and there is quite a diu'erence in the skins from the seal-islands of our country — I sometimes think about as much as in the 
human race. 

Yours, with respect. 

GEO. C. TREADWELL & CO. 

H. W. Elliott, Esq. 

Fur-seal skins are op permanent value. — I have frequently been asked whether, in the light of probable 
caprices of fashion, the value of fur-seal skins would at times shrink to a mere nominal figure, or not. I think 
the history of this trade during the last twenty years, at least, and since the skius have been treated for market as 
above recited, that this record shows the fur-seal skin to be an article of intrinsic value, just as objects of luxurious 
gold and silver work, of precious stones, are, and always will be, no matter what the style may decree. That 
the demand made by the "mode" will sensibly appreciate their fixed high value is also very certain, as it does so 
to-day; but, withdraw it, the seal-skin is still a costly purchase to the wearer, and will ever be so. 

35. BERING, NOT BEHRING. 

Bering, himself, wrote his name, "Bering". — I, myself, do not understand the reason why a false sound 
should be given to this navigator's name, when our alphabet is fully equal to its correct rendition. Here is the way 
the Russians write it, and Bering himself signed his name Dnpnnri = B eri n g, (or B ereng), exactly in our own 
letter sounds. Yet this unwarranted corruption of the true equivalent of a celebrated name continues to be the 
common form of its expression by publication iu England and this country. The Russians and the Danes sound the 
letter'"r" in Bering precisely as we do; and the softened flattened sound of "r", indicated by Behring, is an error 
that should be avoided. It is originally a German corruption. Those Teutonic writers have made the Russian 



152 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

nomenclature, as translated for us, by them, look strange and sound odd to hundreds of English minds who know 
better; but Forster, whom I quote below, was also a German, and hence his testimony to the correct orthography 
of the subject in question, is all the more valuable, especially so, since he says in the preface to his work there 
cited : "The numerous researches upon which, more especially in the ancient part, and that relative to the middle 
ages, I was obliged to enter, the multifarious departments of learning, from which I have derived some of the 
following notes and remarks, the orthography of a proper name, has frequently cost me hours, and sometimes 
whole days." 

Cogent reasons why it is "Bering". — Also in this relation, Professor Gill, of the Smithsonian Institution, 
informs me that "the name of the navigator, which has been conferred on the strait separating America and Asia, 
is unquestionably spelled Bering and not Behring. I submit in explanation my reasons: 1st. The navigator 
himself was born in Jutland, and a scion of a Danish family, whose members bore the name of Bering, and two 
representatives of which had the same Christian name, viz, (1) Vitus Bering, born 1G17, died 1075, some time 
professor of poetry at Copenhagen, and (2) Vitus Bering, born 1682, died 1753, a priest of Ollerup and Kirkeby. 
The form Behring, so far as I can ascertain, is unknown in Denmark (see Nyerup's Dansk-jSTorsk Litteratnr-Lexicon: 
v. i, pp. 5G, 57, 1818). 2d. The form Bering is almost (but not quite) universally adopted in all non-English works, 
for example, Biographie Universelle (Michaud): v. 4, p. 261, 1811; also nouv. e"d.: v. 4, p. 28, 1854; Nouvelle 
Biographie Generale (Hoefer): v. 5, p. 527, 1855; Allgemeine Encyclopadie der Wisseuschaften und Kiinste (Ersch 
und Gruber) : v. 9, p. 136, 1822 ; Neues Konversations-Lexicon (Meyer's) : v. 3, p. 238, 1862 ; Deutsch-Amerikanisches 
Conversations-Lexicon (Schem) : v. 2, p. 296, 1S69, and numerous others. The exceptional cases are Pierer's Universal 
Lexicon, Grand Dictionnaire Universel du xix e siecle, etc. In English dictionaries, the true form. Bering, is adopted 
in the Brief Biographical Dictionary, by Holes, 1865, and the Dictionary of Biographical Reference, by Phillips, 
1871, and is gradually superseding the more familiar English form. An explanation of the reason of the origin 
of the name Behring, is found in the fact that it was originally derived from the Eussian, without a knowledge of 
its primitive source, and was the supposed English phonetic expression of the Eussian characters. Inasmuch, 
however, (1) as the original form of a name, without regard to its pronunciation, is universally adopted in our 
biographies and bibliographies, and (2) as the original form of the navigator's name was Bering, such is the correct 
one, and that which must ultimately supersede the other. It need only be added that Bering himself, and the 
Eussians universally, ('?) adopt that form when writing in English characters, and that the Eussian letter ('u') in 
his name, represented by 'eh,' is especially ordained by the Eussians to be rendered by the Latin character 'e,' 
in accordance with the pronunciation of the Latin and continental races generally." 

In addition to this clear statement by Professor Gill, I desire to add the following : John Eeinhold Forster, I. 
U. D., who sailed around the world with Captain Cook — a man that universally commanded respect in his day 
as a scholar and a high-minded gentleman — in his Voyages and Discoveries in the Worth, London, 1783, pp. 401-402, 
writes: " Nevertheless, it would be still more proper to make this strait a kind of monumeut to the very deserving 
and truly great navigator, Veit Bering, by naming it, after him, Bering straits." 

The common error op "ofe" for "ov". — Furthermore, in this connection, it will be noticed that I do not 
spell the common Eussian terminative "obi" as "-off"; these letters "obi" in the Eussian, are sounded by their 
makers exactly as we would "ov" in our own alphabet; for instance, take the name u Baranov," or " BapanoBi" in the 
Eussian; the common English and German spelling in our language is u Baranoff"; but, when these same writers 
come to "EapanoBmi", instead of making it u Baranofitch", according to their first erroneous rule, they spell it 
correctly, u Baranoviich." In the same way they murder "Pribylov" ; but did they chance to write it in the 
possessive, it would appear correctly as u Pribylova", and not u Prihyloffa". The Eussians have our letter "/", as 
"*" in their alphabet; and they use it freely when they want to express that same sound of "/" in our tongue; 
for instance, in " Timothy", they always say "Timofay" (r D Mo*eu^) : " Officer," is " Offitsar," etc. 

The unwarranted "W" eor " V". — This unsettled state of English orthography, as far as it relates to the 
introduction and correct rendition of Eussian nomenclature, produces much embarrassment and annoyance to any 
writer who may seek for a fixed rule; not only do no two authors agree, but these authorities themselves are guilty 
of the inconsistencies which I have pointed out above. Thus, these German translations of the Eussian have 
given us "Moscow", when there is no sound of " W" in the Eussian language or suggestion of it in that facile and 
extensive alphabet of nearly forty letters. In the case of Moscow, I presume we must be guided by the authority 
and example of Gibbon, who declares that " some words, notoriously corrupt, are fixed, and as it were, naturalized 
in the vulgar tongue. The prophet Mohammed can no longer be stripped of the famous, though improper, 
appellation of Mahomet ; the well-known cities of Aleppo, Damascus, and Cairo, would almost be lost in the strange 
descriptions of Haleb, Damashl; and Al Cahira." 

High time to correct such blunders. — But, in all kindness, I submit that the name of Bering has 
not been so firmly travestied as has that of the Arabic chief, and ought not to be passed down misspelled on the map 
of the great sea and straits which perpetuate and commemorate his being. And it is high time s.uch numberless 
outrages as "Wolga", for "Volga"; "Kiew", for "Kiev"; "Azow", for "Azov"; "Pribiloff", for "Pribylov"; 
"Werst", for "Verst", be corrected in all future printing of Eussian nomenclature. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 153 

36. TIIE LAW PKOTECTDTG THE SEAL-ISLANDS. 
AX ACT to prevent the extermination of fnr-liearing animals in Alaska. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
That it shall be unlawful to kill any fur-seal upon the islands of St. Paul and St. George, or in the waters 
adjacent thereto, except during the months of June, July, September, and October, in each year: and it shall be 
unlawful to kill such seals at any time by the use of fire-arms, or use of other means tending to drive the seals away 
from said islands : Peorided, That the natives of said islands shall have the privilege of killing such young seals as 
may be necessary for their own food and clothing during other months, and also .such old seals as may be required 
for their own clothing and for the manufacture of boats for their own use. which killing shall be limited and 
controlled by such regulations as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That it shall be unlawful to kill any female seal, or any seal less than one year 
old, at any season of the year, except as above provided; audit shall also be unlawful to kill any seal in the waters 
adjacent to said islands, or on the beaches, cliffs, or rocks where they haul up from the sea to remain: and any 
person who shall violate either of the provisions of this or the first section of this act, shall be punished ou 
conviction thereof, for each offense, by a line of not less than two hundred dollars nor more than one thousand 
dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding six mouths, or by both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of 
the court having jurisdiction and taking cognizance of the offenses; and all vessels, their tackle, apparel, ami 
furniture, whose crew shall be found engaged iu the violation of any of the provisions of this act, shall be forfeited 
to the United States. 

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That for the period of twenty years from and after the passage of this act, 
the number of fur-seals which may be killed for their skins upon the island of St. Paul is hereby limited and 
restricted to seventy-five thousand per annum; and the number of fur-seals which maybe killed for their skins 
upon the island of St. George, is hereby limited and restricted to twenty-five thousand per annum : Provided, 
That the Secretary of the Treasury may restrict and limit the right of killing, if it shall become necessary for the 
preservation of such seals, with such proportionate reduction of the rents reserved to the government as shall be 
right and proper: and if any person shall knowingly violate either of the provisions of this section, he shall, upon 
due conviction thereof, be punished in the same way as is provided herein for a violatiou of the provisions of the 
first and second sections of this act. 

Sec. 4. And be it further enaeted, That immediately after the passage of this act, the Secretary of the Treasury 
shall lease, for the rental mentioned in section 6 of this act, to proper and responsible parties, to the best advantage 
of the United States, having due regard to the interests of the government, the native inhabitants, the parties 
heretofore engaged in the trade, and the protection of the seal-fisheries, for a term of twenty years from the 1st 
day of May, 1870, the right to engage in the business of taking fur-seals on the islands of St. Paul and St. 
George, and to send a vessel or vessels to said islands for the skins of such seals, giving to the lessee or lessees of 
said islands a lease duly executed, iu duplicate, not transferable, and taking from the lessee or lessees of said islands 
a bond, with sufficient sureties, in a sum not less than 8-300,000, conditioned for the faithful observance of all the 
laws and requirements of Congress, and of the regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury touching the subject- 
matter of taking fur-seals and disposing of the same, and for the payment of all taxes and dues accruing to the 
United States connected therewith. And in making said lease the Secretary of the Treasury shall have due regard 
to the preservation of the seal-fur trade of said islands, and the comfort, maintenance, and education of the natives 
thereof. The said lessees shall furnish to the several masters of vessels employed by them certified copies of the 
lease held by them, respectively, which shall be presented to the government revenue-officer for the time being, 
who may be iu charge at the said islands, as the authority of the party for landing and taking skins. 

Sec. 5. A nd be it further enacted, That at the expiration of said term of twenty years, or on surrender or forfeit ure 
of any lease, other leases may be made in manner as afoi'esaid for other terms of twenty years; but no persons other 
than American citizens shall be permitted, by lease or otherwise, to occupy said islands, or either of them, tor the 
purpose of taking the skins of fur-seals therefrom, nor shall any foreign vessel be engaged in taking such skins ; 
and the Secretary of the Treasury shall vacate and declare atiy lease forfeited, if the same be held or operated for 
the use, benefit, or advantage, directly or indirectly, of any person or persons other than American citizens. Every 
lease shall contain a covenant on the part of the lessee that he will not keep, sell, furnish, give, or dispose of any 
distilled spirits or spirituous licpiors on either of said islands to any of the natives thereof, such person not being 
a physician and furnishing the same for use as medicine; and any person who shall kill any fur-seal on either of 
said islands, or in the waters adjacent thereto (excepting natives as provided by this act |, without authority of the 
lessees thereof, and any person who shall molest, disturb, or interfere with said lessees, or either of them, or their 
agents or employes, in the lawful prosecution of their business, under the provisions of this act, shall be deemed 
guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall for each offense, on conviction thereof, lie punished in the same way and by like 
penalties as prescribed in the second section of this act: and all vessels, their tackle, apparel, appurtenances, and 
cargo, whose crews shall be found engaged in any violation of either of the provisions of this section, shall be 



154 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

forfeited to the United States ; and if any person or company, under any lease, herein authorized, shall knowingly 
kill, or permit to be killed, any number of seals exceeding the number for each island in this act prescribed, such 
person or company shall, in addition to the penalties and forfeitures aforesaid, also forfeit the whole number of the 
skins of seals killed in that year, or, in case the same have been disposed of, then said person or company shall 
forfeit the value of the same. And it shall be the duty of any revenue officer, officially acting as such on either of 
said islands, to seize and destroy any distilled spirits or spirituous liquors found thereon ; Provided, That such officer 
shall make detailed report of his doings to the collector of the port. 

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That the annual rental to be reserved by said lease, shall be not less than 
fifty thousand dollars per annum, to be secured by deposit of United States bonds to that amount, and in addition 
thereto a revenue tax or duty of two dollars is hereby laid upon each fur-seal skiu taken and shipped from said 
islands during the continuance of such lease, to be paid into the Treasury of the United States ; and the Secretary 
of the Treasury is hereby empowered and authorized to make all needful rules and regulations for the collection 
and payment of the same; and to secure the comfort, maintenance, education, and protection of the natives of said 
islands, and also for carrying into full effect all the provisions of this act; Provided, That the Secretary of the 
Treasury may terminate any lease given to any person, company, or corporation, on full and satisfactory proof of the 
violation of any of the provisions of this act, or rules and regulations established by him. 

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of the seventh and eighth sections of an act entitled 
"An act to extend the laws of the United States relating to customs, commerce, and navigation over the territory 
ceded to the United States by Eussia, to establish a collection district therein, and for other purposes", approved 
July 27, 1S6S, shall be deemed to apply to this act ; and all prosecution for offenses committed against the provisions 
of this act, and all other proceedings had because of the violations of the provisions of this act, and which are 
authorized by said act above mentioned, shall be in accordance with the provisions thereof, and all acts and parts 
of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. 

Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That the Congress may at any time hereafter alter, amend, or repeal this act. 

Approved July 1, 1870. 

Amended, March 21, 1874. — Be it enacted, etc., That the act entitled " An act to prevent the extermination 
of fur-bearing animals in Alaska", approved July first, eighteen hundred and seventy, is hereby amended so as to 
authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, and he is hereby authorized, to designate the months in which the fur- 
seals may be taken for their skins on the islands of St. Paul and St. George, in Alaska, and in the waters adjacent 
thereto, and the number to be taken on or about each island respectively. 

37. THE OEGANIZATION AND EEGULATIONS OF THE ALASKA COMMEECIAL COMPANY. 

BY-LAWS OP THE ALASKA COMMERCIAL COMPANY, SAN PRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. 

I. The corporate name of this company is the Alaska Commercial Company, and its affairs are under the 
control of five trustees, who shall hereafter be chosen by the stockholders of the company on the second Wednesday 
of June in each year, and who shall hold office until their successors are elected. The annual meetings of the 
stockholders shall be held at the office of the company. At all elections of trustees by the stockholders, each 
stockholder shall be entitled to one vote for every share of stock held by him on the books of the company. 
Stockholders may vote by proxy. All proxies shall be signed by the party owning the stock represented. 

II. The principal place of business of the company is San Francisco, California. 

III. The regular meetings of the board of trustees will be held at the office of the company on the first 
Wednesday in each month, at 12 o'clock in., and no notice of such meeting to any of the trustees shall be requisite. 
Other meetings of the board of trustees may be held upon the call of the president, by notice, signed by him, of the 
time and place of meeting, personally served on each trustee residing within this state, or published in a newspaper 
of general circulation in San Francisco for ten days successively next preceding the day of such meeting. Special 
meetings may be held upon notice, signed by three trustees, stating the time and place of meeting, and the purpose 
for which the meeting is called, having been duly served on each trustee, or published in a newspaper of general 
circulation in San Francisco for ten days successively next preceding the day of meeting, and no business other 
than that specified in the notice shall be transacted at such special meeting. At all meetings of the board any 
three of the trustees being present shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of the business of the company. 
Adjourned meetings may be held in pursuance of a resolution of the board adopted at any regular or general 
meeting of the board. Any three trustees elected at any annual meeting of the stockholders of the company, and 
being present at the close of such stockholders' meeting may, on the same day, without notice to any of the trustees, 
meet aud organize the board by the election of officers, and may transact such other business as may come before 
the board at such meeting. 

IV. The officers of the company shall consist of a president, a vice-president, and a secretary, who shall be 
chosen by the board of trustees at tueir first meeting after the annual election of trustees; such officers to hold 
office one year, or until their successors are elected. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 155 

V. The president, or in Lis absence the rice-president, shall preside at the meetings of the board. In case 
neither is present, the board may appoint a president pro tempore. 

VI. All vacancies in the board maybe filled by the board at the next meeting after the existence of such 
vacancy, and it shall require the affirmative vote of three trustees to elect. In case of any vacancy occurring among 
the officers or agents of the company, the same may be filled at any meeting of the board. 

VII. All certificates of the capital stock of the company shall be signed by the president and secretary, attested 
by the corporate seal of the company, and can be issued to the parties entitled thereto or their authorized agent. 
All transfers of stock shall be made on the books of the company by the secretary, upon surrender of the original 
certificate or certificates, properly indorsed by the party in whose favor the same was issued. No stock shall be 
transferred to any person not a stockholder of the company at the time of such transfer, unless the same shall have 
been offered for sale to the company, or stockholders of the company, and the purchase at the fair cash or market 
value refused, except by authority of a resolution of the board of trustees permitting such transfer. 

VIII. The corporate seal of the company consists of a die of the following words: "Alaska Commercial 
Company, San Francisco, California." 

IX. The corporate seal, and all property, securities, interests and business of the company, shall be under the 
control and general management of the president, subject to the direction of the board of trustees. The funds of 
the company shall be deposited (from time to time as they are received) to the credit of the company, with a bank 
doing business in San Francisco, to be designated by the president, and the said funds can be drawn from such 
bank only by proper checks or drafts, signed by the president or vice-president of the company. The books of the 
company shall be kept by the secretary, who shall also keep a correct record of all the proceedings of the board of 
trustees had at their meetings, and perform such other duties as the board of trustees may require. 

X. The pay and salaries of all officers of the company shall be determined, from time to time, by the board of 
trustees. 

XI. The president of the company shall have power to appoint and employ such general business agents, 
factors, attorneys, clerks, and other employe's as he may deem proper and requisite for conducting the business and 
affairs of the company; and he shall fix the pay, commissions, or salaries of all such agents, factors, attorneys, 
clerks, and other employes, from time to time, as circumstances shall require. 

XII. All transfers of the capital stock of this company, made to persons not citizens of the United States, or 
made for the use or benefit of any citizen or citizens of any foreign government, are absolutely void. 

XIII. Dividends from the net profits of the company may be declared and paid by order of the board of 
trustees, in accordance with law. 

XIV. These by-laws may be altered or amended by the board of trustees in the manner prescribed by law. 

regulations fok conduct of affairs on the seal-islands. 

Office Alaska Commercial Covipanv. 

San Francisco, January, 1S72. 

The following regulations are prescribed for the guidance of all concerned: 

1. The general management of the company's affairs on the islands of St. Paul and St. George is intrusted 
to one general agent, whose lawful orders and directions must be implicitly obeyed by all subordinate agents and 
employes. 

»2. Seals can only be taken on the islands during the months of June, July, September, and October in each 
year, except those killed by the native inhabitants, for food and clothing, under regulations prescribed by the 
Secretary of the Treasury. Female seals and seals less than one year old will not be killed at any time, and the 
killing of seals in the waters surrounding the islands, or on or about the rookeries, beaches, cliffs, or rocks, where 
they haul up from the sea to remain, or by the use of fire arms, or any other means tending to drive the seals away 
from the islands, is expressly forbidden. 

3. The use of fire-arms on the islands, during the period from the first arrival of seals in the spring season until 
they disappear from the islands in autumn, is prohibited. 

•1. Xo dogs will be permitted on the islands. 

5. Xo person will be permitted to kill seals for their skins on the islands, except under the supervision and 
authority of the agents of the company. 

C. Xo vessels other than those employed by the company, or vessels of the United States, will be permitted to 
touch at the islands, or to land any persons or merchandise thereon, except in cases of shipwreck or vessels in 
distress. 

*7. The number of seals which may be annually killed for their skins on St. Faul island is limited to 7o,000, 
and the number which may be so killed on St. George island is limited to 25,000. 

•Sections 2 and 7 of tbe above regulations were based upon tbe law of July 1, 1670; but since then Congress has given the Secretary of 
the Treasury the power to fix the ratio for each island upon a more intelligent understanding of the subject, and also to extend the tiino 
for taking seal-skins, from the 1st of June up to the 15tb of August.— H. W. E. 



156 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

8. No persons other than American citizens, or the Aleutian inhabitants of said islands, will be employed by 
the company on the islands in any capacity. 

9. The Aleutian people living on the islands will be employed by the company in taking seals for their skins, 
and they will be paid for the labor of taking each skin and delivering the same at the salt-house forty cents, coin, 
until otherwise ordered by the Secretary of the Treasury. For other labor performed for the company, proper and 
remunerative wages will be paid, the amount to be agreed upon between the agents of the company and the 
persons employed. The working-parties will be under the immediate control of their own chiefs, and no compulsory 
means will ever be used to induce the people to labor. All shall be free to labor or not, as they may choose. The 
agents of the company will make selection of the seals to be killed, and are authorized to use all proper means to 
prevent the cutting of skins. 

10. All provisions and merchandise required by the inhabitants for legitimate use will be furnished them from 
the company's stores, at prices not higher than ordinary retail prices at San Francisco, and in no case at prices 
above 25 per cent, advance on wholesale or invoice prices in Sau Francisco. 

11. The necessary supplies of fuel, oil, and salmon will be furnished the people gratis. 

12. All widows and orphan children on the islands will be supported by the company. 

13. The landing or manufacture on the islands of spirituous or intoxicating liquors or wines will, under no 
cii'cumstances, be permitted by the company, and the preparation and use of fermented liquors by the iuhabitauts 
must be discouraged in every legitimate manner. 

14. Free transportation and subsistence on the company's vessels will be furnished all people who at any time 
desire to remove from the islands to any place iu the Aleutian group of islands. 

15. Free schools will be maintained by the company eight months iu each year, four hours per day, Sundays 
and holidays excepted, and agents and teachers will endeavor to secure the attendance of all. The company will 
furnish the necessary books, stationery, and other appliances for the use of the schools, without cost to the people. 

16. The physicians of the company are required to faithfully attend upon the sick, and both medical attendance 
and medicines shall be free to all persons on the islands ; and the acceptance of gratuities from the people for such 
services is forbidden. 

17. The dwelling-houses now being erected by the company will be occupied by the Aleutian families free of 
rent or other charges. 

18. No interference on the part of the agents or employes of the company in the local government of the people 
on the islands, or in their social or domestic relations, or in their religious rites or ceiemonies, will be countenanced 
or tolerated. 

19. It is strictly enjoined upon all agents and employes of the company to at all times treat the inhabitants of 
the islands with the utmost kindness, and endeavor to preserve amicable relations with them. Force is never to 
be used against them, except in defense of life, or to prevent the wanton destruction of valuable property. The 
agents and employes of the company are expected to instruct the native people in household economy, and, by 
precept and example, illustrate to them the principles and benefits of a higher civilization. 

20. Faithful and strict compliance with all the provisions and obligations contained in the act of Congress 
entitled "An act to prevent the extermination of fur-bearing animals in Alaska", approved July 1, 1870, and the 
obligations contained in the lease to the company executed in pursuance of said act, and the regulations of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, prescribed under authority of said act, is especially enjoined upon all agents and employes 
of the company. The authority of the special agents of the Treasury appointed to reside upon the islands must be 
respected, whenever lawfully exercised. The interest of the company in the management of the seal-fisheries being 
identical in character with that of the United States, there can be no conflict between the agents of the company 
and the agents of the government, if all concerned faithfully perform their several duties and comply with the laws 
and regulations. 

21. The general agent of the company will cause to be kept books of record on eacb island, in which shall be 
recorded the names and ages of all the inhabitants of the islands, and, from time to time, all births, marriages, and 
deaths which may occur on the islands, stating, in cases of death, the causes of the same. A full transcript of these 
records will be annually forwarded to the home office at San Francisco. 

22. Copies of these regulations will be kept constantly posted in conspicuous places on both islands, and any 
willful violation of the same by the agents or employes of the company will be followed by the summary removal 
of the offending party. 

JOHN F. MILLEE, N 
President Alaska Commercial Company. 

General Miller, in January, 1881, was elected, by the legislature of California, to the Senate of the United States. 
He is succeeded as president of the Alaska Commercial Company by Mr. Lewis Gerstle, who is one of the original 
stockholders, and who has always been prominently identified with the business. The affairs of the company are now 
principally managed by Messrs. Gerstle, Sloss, Niebaum, and Neumann, on the Pacific coast; by Mr. Hutchinson, 
at Washington ; and Sir Curtis Lampson in Loudon. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 157 

38. COMMENTS UPON THE LEGISLATION OF CONGRESS. 

Ratio of catch at first incorrectly apportioned. — The original text of the existing law for the 
protection of the seal-islands, provides that the 100,000 seals which may be annually taken from them shall be 
proportioned by killing 75,000 on St. Paid and 25,000 on St. George. This ratio was based evidently upon the 
foregoing table of Veniaminov, which, if accurate, would clearly show that fully one-third as many seals repaired to 
the smaller island as to the larger one, and until I made my surveys, 1872-74, it was so considered by all parties 
interested. The fact, however, which I soou discovered, is that St. George receives only one-eighteenth of the 
whole aggregate of fur-seal visitation peculiar to the Pribylov islands, St. Paul entertaining the other seventeen 
parts. 

Reason for amendjient of 1874. — This amazing difference, in the light of prior knowledge and understanding, 
caused me, on returning to Washington in October, 1873, to lay the matter before the Treasury Department, and 
ask that the law be so modified that, in the event of abnormally warm killing-seasons, a smaller number might 
be taken from St. George, with a corresponding increase at St. Paul; for, unless this was doue, it might become at 
any season a matter of great hardship to secure 25,000 killable seals on St. George, iu the short period allotted by 
the law of July 1, 1870. The Treasury Department, while fully concurring in my representations, seemed to doubt 
its power to do so; then, with its sanction, I carried the question before Congress, January, 1874, and secured from 
that body an amendment of the act of July 1, 1870, above quoted in full (act, etc., approved March 24, 1874), which 
gives the Secretary of the Treasury full discretion in the matter, and fixes the hitherto inflexible ratio of killing 
on each island upon a sliding scale, as it were, for adjustment from season to season, upon a more intelligent 
understanding of the subject; and, also, this amendatory act grants au extension of the legal limit of killing, by 
giving the Secretary of the Treasury the power to fix it annually. 

Law works well.— As the law is now amended, the killing on the two islands can be sensibly adjusted each 
season, by the relative number of seals on the two islauds, which will vary so markedly on St. George according as 
it may be abnormally dry and warm when the period for driving the "holluschickie" is at hand.* 

Special Agents of the Treasury Department. — Prior to March, 1872, the supervision of the Treasury 
Department over its interests on the Pribylov islauds was directed by the detail of special agents from the Secretary, 
who paid them out of a contingent fund of $50,000, which Congress voted in 1S08 for the "collection of customs" 
in Alaska; this appropriation running out, the secretary drew the following bill, which Congress adopted, and it 
was approved March 5, 1872: 

Section I. Be it enactcd,ele., That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint one agent and throe 
assistant agents, who shall he charged with the management of the seal-fisheries in Alaska, and the performance of such other duties as 
may be assigned to them by the Secretary of the Treasury; and the said agent shall receive the sum often dollars per diem ; one assistant 
agent the sum of eight dollars per diem; and two assistant agents the sum of sis dollars each per diem while so employed ; and they shall 
also be allowed their necessary traveling expenses iu going to and returning from Alaska, such expenses not to exceed the sum of three 
hundred dollars in auy one year. 

Sec. II. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and is hereby, authorized to erect a dwelling-house upon 
each of the islands of St. Paul aud St. George, for the use of said agents, the cost of both not to exceed the sum of six thousand dollars. 

SEC. III. And be it further enacted, That the said agents be, and they are hereby, empowered to administer oaths in all cases relating 
to the service of the United States, and to take testimony in Alaska for the use of the government in any manner concerning the public 
revenues. 

Under this law the present force of treasury officers is creditably maintained on the Pribylov islauds. Living 
there, as they do, in perfect isolation, so far from headquarters, it is necessary that, to iusurethe personal ability 
of the officers to be out on the killing-grounds in the sealing-season, two agents at least should be detailed upon 
each island, as they are; should one fall sick, then the other is on hand. The work every year of taking the seals, 
like the moving of the tides, cannot and will not wait for any man; it is literally "now or never!" with its conduct. 

"Upon my urgent and persistent representations, the law directing, and appropriating for, the maintenance of a revenue critter in 
Alaska waters, for the protection of the seal-islands and sea-otter hunting-grounds, was inserted in the sundry civil budget for 1877; and, 
in May of that year, the late Capt. George W. Bailey, in the United States revenue marine cutter "Richard Rush", sailed on that errand 
from San Francisco. This special service has been continued ever since, and now will remain a regularly sustained action on the part of 
the department, I trust. The excellent record and efficiency of the supervision rendered by the revenue marine iu Alaska has been .so well 
maintained and is so apparent, that I do not see how it can be suffered to fall. It is the only effective arm of the United St ates government 
in that region, or that has ever been so. All travel in that country is essentially by water; nine-tenths of its people live by the seaside. 

The fur-seals of Alaska, collectively and individually, are the property of the general government, and for their special and sole 
protection the extra legislation of July, 1870, was designedly enacted. Every fur-seal playing in the waters of Bering sea around about 
the Pribylov islands, no matter if found so doing one hundred miles away from those rookeries, belongs there, has been begotten and 
born thereon, and is the animal that the explicit shield of the law protects; no legal sophism or quibble can cloud the whole truth of 
my statement. Construe the law otherwise, then a marine license of hunting beyond a marine league (3 miles) from the sin. res ot 
the Pribylov islands, would soon raise up such a multitudinous lleet, that its cruising could not fail, iu a few short years, in so harassing 
and irritating the breeding-seals as to cause their withdrawal from the Alaskan rookeries, and probable retreat to those of Russia— a 
source of undoubted JIuseovitie delight and emolument, and of corresponding shame aud loss to us. 

The matter is, however, now thoroughly appreciated and understood at the Treasury Department, and has been during the past 
four years, as the seal pirates have discovered to their chagriu and discomfiture. 



158 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

39. PARAGRAPHS OF REFEBENCE EELATIVE TO SUBJECTS DISCUSSED IN THE PEECEDING 
MEMOIR, AND EEFEEEED TO AS KOTE 39. 

A. Previous publications of the writer [Section I]. — I allude, at the outset, to the fact that a brief digest 
of my surveys had been published by the government in 1873-'74; it is entitled Condition of Affairs in Alaska: 
8° 1874. This report was principally given up to the state of the fur-trade over all Alaska, the people and resources 
thereof; it also contains the substance of a still briefer report of mine made upon the Pribylov islands in September, 
1873, and was printed by the Treasury Department during my absence in Alaska. Owing to causes of which I have 
necessarily no personal knowledge, only 75 copies of this report were struck off; it was illustrated by 50 quarto 
plates photographed from my drawings and paintings. 

B. St. Felix must not be confounded with Masafuera [Section 2J. — The overshadowing number of 
fur-seals found on Masafuera and Juan Fernandez islands, just to the southward of this island, has caused a great 
deal of confusion as to the existence, or not, of Arctocephalus on this island and Ambrosia islet, in the old records 
and statements of Antarctic fur-sealers. It has, however, never been a very prominent rookery, but it has been one, 
nevertheless, and hence I give its name. 

A fur-seal skin was taken from either the straits of Le Maire or Juan Fernandez as early as 1G86, and presented 
to the Museum of the Eoyal Society in London; here it was first noticed as new by Dr. Grew, in 1694; but the name 
of the donor and the locality being unknown, the matter was allowed to drop by naturalists, and Grew's descriptions 
were laid aside by them as obscure and apocryphal ; indeed, even as late as 1823, Baron Cuvier said of the Grew 
diagnosis, " Que faire de cette phoque — Que faire de cette otarief (Diet. Class. cVEist. Nat., tome xiii.) 

I say that this specimen was taken from the above localities in all probability ; because, unless it came from 
the Falkland islands, there were no other fur-seal grounds known to navigators at so early a date. Spanish and 
English buccaneers were, however, familiar with Juan Fernandez and Masafuera as soon as 1574-'86, or a full 
century prior to the receipt of the Grew specimen. These sea pirates, however, prided themselves over their swords 
alone; so we have no record of what they really knew or did. Nevertheless, some of them, evidently, employed a 
leisure hour or day in securing and transmitting the skin above referred to. In summing up, therefore, Henry 
Brewer, in 1G46, at Staten land, first noticed the southern fur-seal. William Dampier, in 1683, first called specific 
attention to it as a fur-seal, and Dr. Grew, as above stated, first described it formally as a new seal to natural 
science. So much is due to the true literature of the Antarctic fur-seal. 

Vj. Pribtlov's discovert of the islands [Section 3]. — "Anglieskie Bookta," or English bay, so-called 
by the natives because in 1849 a large English whale (?) ship was stranded on the shoals of that reach of the coast, 
and the wreck driven ashore there. 

D. Land and scenery [Section 4].— This village lagoon has been filling up very perceptibly since 1868, 
when Hutchinson and Morgan then were able to sail in a small sloop, drawing six feet of water, up to its head. 
To-day such a vessel could not come nearer than half a mile to their anchorage of 1868. The principal shoaling takes 
place in a direct line here between Tolstoi Mees and the Village Hill, where a rocky reef seems to be slowly rising, 
pushed up by ice fields. The sloop yacht " Jabez Howe", which was wrecked in 1873 on Akootan, is probably the 
last sea-going vessel that has or ever will gain an entrance to the village lagoon, St. Paid island; or swing at 
anchor in the cove. 

E. St. Paul [Section 4].— The physical difficulties of pedestrianism here recall vividly to my mind the recent 
death of Mr. Edward Gill, a brother of the distinguished naturalist, Professor Gill, of the Smithsonian Institution. 
Late in October, 1876, this young man, in company with several of the natives and two agents of the Alaska 
Commercial Company, started out one bright morning for a walk, intending to go to Northeast point, then to return 
by Nahsayvernia to English bay, and home to the village in the evening ; they had journeyed on this route as far 
as Maroouitch, at the north shore, when a storm of wind and sleet arose which blew directly in their faces as they 
came across the island to English bay. Gill sank several times from exhaustion, caused by the severe exercise of 
walking in the sphagnum on Boga Slov and of jumping over the tussocks near the bay. Finally, at the head of the 
lagoon, and in sight of the village lights, he dropped into the long grass, utterly prostrated ; his companions, too 
weak to carry him farther, struggled on, and when the relief party found him he was warm, but life had departed. 
He was in perfect health and condition at the startiDg; but the chdl fury of the icy gale had compassed his death. 

F. Resident natives of St. Paul, July 1, 1870, taken from Philip Volkov's lists, August 8, 1873. 

[Section 5.] 

[The names in italics -were either dead or absent from the island at the date, of copy, August 8, 1873. J 



1. Philip Keemachncek. 

2. Kffroscenia, his wife. 

3. Ivan, his son. 

4. Danelo, his son. 

5. Vasseele Seedulee. 



6. Marcena, his wife. 

7. Alexander, his son. 
R. Sylvester, his son. 
9. Eefeem Anoolanai. 



11. Simeon, adopted son. 

12. Marka Aveelyah. 

13. Feelecehat, his wife. 

14. Peter Peeshenkov. 



10. Malroona, his wife. | 15. Matroona, his wife 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



159 



16. Ivan Eemanov. 

17. Anna, his wife. 

18. Yeagor, his son. 

19. Loobov, his step-daughter. 

20. Maxseem, his step-son. 

21. Maria, Uis niece. 
2'2. Niekolai Krukov. 

23. Peter Krukov. 

24. Agrafeena, his wife. 
2">. Ivan Korchootin. 

26. Ooleeana, his wife. 

27. Yahkov Korchootin. 

28. Lookahria, his sister. 

29. Natalia Makooleena. 

30. Maria Paranehiua. 

31. Keesar Shabhylean. 

32. Agrafeena, his wife. 

33. Neekon, his son. 

34. Iiipsimia Plottnikova. 

35. Avdotia, her daughter. 

36. Prokoopee Meeseekin. 

37. Eveduxsia, his wife. 

38. Avdotia Meeseekina, his step-mother. 

39. Anna, daughter of Meeseekin. 

40. Deemeetree Veatkin. 

41. Evelampia Veatkin, 

42. Balakshin (Beuedict). 

43. Matroona, his wile. 

44. Meexhae, his son. 

45. Balakshin, second (Benedict). 

46. Stepau Krukov. 

47. Natalie, his wife. 

48. Avdokia Seeribneekova (widow). 

49. Timofay, her son. 

50. Olga, her daughter. 

51. Paraskeevee, her daughter. 

52. Akooleeua, her daughter. 

53. Michael Barrhov. 

54. Malania, his wife. 

55. Agnes, his daughter. 

56. Daniel, his nephew. 

57. Avdotia, Schepeteenah (widow). 

58. Tahreentee, her son. 

59. Elasie, her son. 

60. Hee-une-iah, her daughter. 

61. Kerick Booterin, first chief. 

62. Seeg-lee-teekiah, his wife. 

63. Patalamon, his son. 

64. Kerick, his son. 

65. Salomayee, his daughter. 

66. Ooleeta, his daughter. 

67. George Booterin, his son. 

68. Car]) Booterin. 

69. Lookariah Booterin. 

70. Alexander Pancov. 

71. Porfeerio, his son. 

72. Avdotia, his step-daughter. 

73. Paraskeevie, his step-daughter. 

74. Yakov Sootyahgin. 

75. Eeroadea, his wife. 

76. Feedosayee Saydeek. 

77. Anesia, his wife. 

78. Anna, his daughter. 

79. Feoktista, his godmother. 

80. Dayueese Saydeek. 

81. Baiz yahzeekov (Evlampia). 

82. Anna, his wife. 

83. Maria, his daughter. 
-4. Maroon Nakoek. 

85. Paraskeevie, his wife. 



86. Zachar, his step-son. 

87. , his nephew. 

88. Paraskeevie, niece. 

89. Natalia Habaroova. 

90. Pavel Habarov, her son. 

91. Paul Shies-neekov (priest). 

92. Meeh-ah-elo, his son. 

93. Meeloveedova, Alexsandra (widow). 

94. Simeon, her son. 

95. Alexsandra, her daughter. 

96. Antone, her son. 

97. Marcia, her daughter. 

98. Keriek Artamanov. 

99. Olga, his wife. 

100. Melania, his daughter. 

101. Vasseleesee, his daughter. 

102. Kah-sayn-yah, his daughter. 

103. Gearman Artamanov. 

104. Anna Tarantayvah (widow). 

105. Anna, her daughter. 

106. Stephen Bayloglazov. 

107. Yealeeua, his wife. 

108. Sayrgee, his son. 

109. Anna, his daughter. 

110. Paraskeevie, his adopted girl. 

111. Ermolie Cushing. 

112. Faokla, his wife. 

113. Faokla, his daughter. 

114. Oolyahnah, his daughter. 

115. Aggie Cushing, his son. 

116. Antone Sootyahgen. 

117. Oolyahnah, his wife. 

118. Meetrofan, his son. 

119. Meehaie, his son. 

120. Yahkov Maudrigan. 

121. Afanashia, his wife. 

122. Lookayleean, his son. 

123. Maria, his daughter. 

124. Oseep Pahomov. 

125. Varvarah, his wife. 

126. Maria Seedova (widow). 

127. Ahkakee, her son. 

128. , her daughter. 

129. , her daughter. 

130. , her daughter. 

131. , her daughter. 

132. Alexsayee Neederazov. 

133. Akooleena, his wife. 

134. Christeena, his daughter. 

135. Agrafeena, his daughter. 

136. Keer Saydeek. 

137. YealeeDa, his wife. 

138. Maria, Ids daughter. 

139. Ivan Mandrigan. 

140. Tatahyahn, his wife. 

141. Vasseelee, his son. 

142. Marfa, his daughter. 

143. Feelat Teetov. 

144. Peter, his son. 

145. Yeaon, his son. 

146. Yeagor Arkashav. 

147. Alexsandra, his wife. 

148. Martin, his step-son. 

149. Nekolaie, his step-son. 

150. Stepan, his step-son. 

151. Kereek, his son. 

152. Arsaynce, his son. 

153. Tatayahnah, his daughter. 

154. Timofay Evanov. 

155. FevTonia, his daughter. 



156. PaymenKooznitzov. 

157. Oseep Baizyahzeekov. 

158. Alexsandra, his wife. 

159. Paul, his son. 

160. Kahsaynyah, his step-daughter. 
101. Avdokia, his step-daughter. 

162. Kahsaynyah, liis daughter. 

163. Iran Parauchin. 

164. Zaharrov Evemainov. 

165. Keereenayah, his wife. 

166. Fevrouia, his daughter. 

167. Ivan Hapov. 

168. Anna, his sister-in-law. 

169. Alexsandra, his daughter. 

170. Ivan, his son. 

171. Yeagor Korchootin. 

172. Zachar Saydeek. 

173. Oosteenia, his wife. 

174. Vasseelee, his son. 

175. Marvra, his daughter. 

176. \ekon, his nephew. 

177. Feelip Saydeek. 

178. Stepan Skahvortsov. 

179. Philip Vollkov. 

180. Ellen, his daughter. 

181. Matroona, his daughter. 

182. Markiel Vollkov, his son. 

183. Gavreelo Korchurgiu. 

184. Lnkaylean, his son. 

185. Ivan Sootyahgen. 

186. Heeyoniah, his wife. 

187. Aneesia, his daughter. 
1S8. Emelian Sootyahgen. 

189. Marko Korchootin. 

190. Dareyah, his wife. 

191. Ivan, his son. 

192. Zeenovia, his daughter. 

193. Timofay Glottov. 

194. Maria, his wife. 

195. , his son. 

196. Ivan, his son. 

197. Yeafeemia, his daughter. 

198. Irakliu Mandrigan. 

199. Oosteenie, his wife. 

200. Eeon, his son. 

201. Paul Soovorrov. 

202. A"assa, his wife. 

203. ,hisson. 

204. Akyleena, his mother. 

205. Agrafeena. his adopted girl. 

206. Yeafeem Korchootin. 

207. Palahgayee, his wife. 

208. Peter, his son. 

209. Luka Mandrigan. 

210. Eereena, his wife. 

211. Neekeeta Yitchmainov. 

212. Christeena, his daughter. 

213. Eoinenah, his daughter. 

214. Taheesah, his daughter. 

215. Ivan Yitchmainov. 

216. Michael Korzerov. 

217. Alexsandra, his wife. 

218. Stepan Korzerov. 

219. Paul Korzerov. 

220. Ivan Sozlov. 

221. Talahgayah, his mother. 

222. Feodar, her son. 

223. ICredueksia, her daughter. 

224. Platone Tarakanov. 

225. Marfa, his wife 



160 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



White men in charge. 



1. Dr. Mclntyre. 

2. H. W. Mclntyre. 

3. Dr. Cramer. 

4. John M. Morton. 



5. Chas. Bryant. 

6. D. Webster. 

7. , a cooper. 

8. , a carpenter. 



226. ATcoohna. hh mother. 

227. Kcrick Tarakanov. 

228. Domiau M. Kok (John Frater). 

229. Oolyahnah, his wife. 

230. Anna, his daughter. 

231. Salontayah, Artamanov's daughter. 

What constitutes a native of St. Paul.— There has been some petty divergence of opinion on the 
island as to who are the real " natives " thereof, because these natives enjoy certain privileges that are very valuable 
to them and coveted by all outside Alaskan bretbren. 

In this connection the people living here are divided into three classes; that is, the males : 

First The natives, properly speaking, or those who have been born and raised upon the Pribylov islands; not 
over one-quarter of the present adult population can lay claim to this title. 

Second. The people who were living thereon, but not born natives at the time of the transfer of all Alaska, 
July, 1867; this class constitutes a majority of the citizens of the two islands as they exist to-day. 

Third. Tbe people who were living and working as sealers on the Pribylov islands at the date of the granting 
by the government of the present lease to the Alaska Commercial Company, August 31, 1870. 

Of the above three divisions, strict justice and true equity unite in recognizing the third class as the natives of 
the Pribylov islands. This settles the question also to the best satisfaction of these people themselves, and removes 
every quibble of dispute in the premises. Accurate records of the men, women, and children living on each island 
at the date of the lease in 1871 can be found in the church registers on both St. Paul and St. George. 

Curious derivation of natives' names. — Any one at all acquainted with the Eussian language will not 
tail to notice that the names in the above list have some odd derivations, relating to physical pecubarities, defects, 
and other originations that are more or less comical in their suggestions. I was told by a very bright Eussian, who 
spent a season here, 1871-'72, as special agent of the Treasury Department, that the Aleutian ancestors of these 
people when they were converted and baptized into the Greek Catholic church received their names, bran new, 
from the fertile brains of the priests, who, after exhausting the common run of Muscovitic titles, such as our 
Smiths and Joneses, were compelled to fall back upon some personal characteristics of the new claimant for civilized 
nomenclature. Thus we have to-daj on the seal-islands a "Stepan Bayloglazov", or "Son of aWhite Eye", "Oseep 
Baizyakzeekov", or "Son of a Man without a Tongue". A number of the old Eussian governors and admirals 
of the imperial navy are represented here by their family names, though I do not think, from my full acquaintance 
with the name-sakes, that the distinguished owners in the first place had anything to do with their physical 
embodiment on the Pribylov islands. 

Causes of death among the people. — The principal cause of death among the people, by natural infirmity, 
on the seal-islands, is the varying forms of consumption and bronchitis, always greatly aggravated by that inherited 
scrofulous taint or stain of blood which was, in one way or another, flowing through the veins of their recent 
progenitors, both here and throughout the Aleutian islands. Tbere is nothing worth noticing in the line of nervous 
diseases, unless it be now and then the record of a case of alcoholism superinduced by excessive quass drinking. 
This " makoolah" intemperance among these people, which was not suppressed until 1876, was a chief factor to the 
immediate death of infants ; for, when they were at the breast, the mothers would drink quass to intoxication, and 
the stomachs of the newly-born Aleuts or Creoles could not stand the infliction which they received, even second- 
hand. Had it not been for this wretched spectacle, so often presented to my eyes in 1872-'73, 1 should hardly have 
taken the active steps which I did to put tbe nuisance down; for it involved me, at first, in a bitter personal 
controversy, which, although I knew at the outset it was inevitable, still weighed nothing in the scales against the 
evil itself.* 

A few febrile disorders are occurring, yet they yield readily to good treatment. The chief source of sickness 
used to arise from the wretched character of the barrabkies in which they lived; but it was, at first, a very difficult 
matter to get frame houses to supplant successfully the sod-walled and dirt-roofed huts of the islands. 

Difficulty of getting suitable houses. — Many experiments, however, were made, and a dozen houses 
built, ere the result was as good as the style of primitive housing, when it had been well done and kept iu best 

"This evil of habitual and gross intoxication, under Russian rule, was not characteristic of these islands alone, it was universal 
throughout Alaska. Sir George Simpson, speaking of the subject, when in Sitka, April, 1842, says: "Some reformation certainly was 
wanted in this respect; for of all the drunken, as well as of all the dirty places that I had visited, New Archangel [Sitka] was the worst. 
On the holidays in particular, of which, Sundays included, there are one hundred and sixty-five in tho year, men, women, and even 
children were to be seen staggering about in all directions." [Simpson: Journey Around the World ; 1841-'42, p. 88.] 

Surprise has often been genuine among those who inquire, over the fact that there is no law officer here at either village, and 
wonder is expressed why such provision is not made by the government. But, when the following facts relative to this subject are 
understood, it is at once clear that a justice of the peace and his constabulary, would be entirely useless, if established on the seal- 
islands. As these natives live here, they live as a single family in each settlement, having one common purpose in life and only one ; what 
one native does, eats, wears, or says, is known at once to all the others, just as whatsoever any member of our household may do will soon 
be known to us all who belong to its organization ; hence if they steal or quarrel among themselves, they keep the matter wholly to 
themselves, and settle it to their own satisfaction. Were there rival villages on the islands and diverse people and employment, then the 
case would be reversed, and need of legal machinery apparent. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 161 

possible repair. In such a damp climate, naturally, a strong moldy smell pervades all inclosed rooms which are not 
thoroughly heated and daily dried by fires; and, in the spring and fall frost works through and drips and trickles 
like rain adown the walls. The present frame houses occupied by the natives owe their dryness, their warmth and 
protection from the piercing "boorgas", to the liberal use of stout tarred paper in the liuiug. The overpowering 
mustiness of the hallways, outhouses, and, in fact, every roofed-in spot, where a stove is not regularly used, even 
in the best-built residences, is one of the first disagreeable sensations which the new arrivals always experience 
when they take up their quarters here. Perhaps, if it were not for the nasal misery that floats in from the killing- 
grounds to the novice, this musty, moldy state of things up here would be far more acute, as an annoyance, than it, 
is now. The greater grief seems to soon fully absorb the lesser one; at least iu my own case, I can affirm the result. 

Amiable character of the natives. — These people are singularly affectionate and indulgent toward 
their children. There are no "bald-headed tyrants" in our homes, as arbitrary and ruthless iu their rule as are 
those snuffly babies and young children, on the seal-islands. While it is very young, the Aleut gives up everything 
to the caprice of his child, and never crosses its path or thwarts its desire ; the " deetiah" literally take charge of 
the house; but as soon as these callow members of the family become strong enough to bear burdens and to labor, 
generally between 12 and 15 years of age, they are then pressed into hard service relentlessly by their hitherto 
indulgent parents; the extremes literally meet in this application. 

They have another peculiarity : when they are ill, slightly or seriously, no matter which, they maintain or 
affect a stolid resignation, and are patient to positive apathy. This is not due to deficiency of nervous organization, 
because those among them who exhibit examples of intense liveliness and nervous activity, behave just as stolidly 
when ill as their more lymphatic townsmen do. Boys and girls, men and women, all alike are patient and resigned 
when ailing and under treatment ; but it is a bad feature after all, inasmuch as it is well-nigh impossible to rally a 
very sick man who himself has no hope, and who seems to mutely deprecate every effort to save his life. 

Disposition to gamble. — The inherent propensity of man to gamble is developed here to a very appreciable 
degree, but it in no way whatever suggests the strange gaming love and infatuation with which the Indians and 
Eskimo elsewhere of Alaska are possessed. The chief delight of the men and boys of the two villages is to stand 
on the street corners "pitching" half dollars; so devoted, indeed, have 1 found the native mind to this haphazard 
sport, that frequently I would detect groups of them standing out in pelting gales of wind and of rain, "shying" 
the silver coin at the little dirt-driven pegs. A few of them, men and women, play cards with much skill and 
intelligence. 

Children's sports. — The urchins play marbles, spin tops, and fly kites, intermittently, with all the feverish 
energy displayed by the youth of our own surroundings ; they frolic at base-ball, and use " shinny" sticks with much 
volubility and activity. The girls are, however, much more repressed, and, though they have a few games, and 
play quietly with quaintly dressed dolls, yet they do not appear to be possessed of that usual feminine animation 
so conspicuously marked in our home life. 

Attachment to the islands. — The attachment which the natives have for their respective islands was well 
shown to me in 1874 Then, a number of St. George people were taken over to St. Paul, temporarily, to do the 
killing incidental to a reduction of the quota of 25,000 for their island and a corresponding increase at St. Pan] ; 
they became homesick immediately, and were never tired of informing the St. Paul natives that St. George was a 
far handsomer and more enjoyable island to live upon! that walking over the long sand reaches of "Pavel" made 
their legs grievously weary, and that the whole effect of this change of residence was "ochen scootchnie". Naturally, 
the ire of the St. Paul people rose at once, and they retorted in kind, indicating the rocky surface of St. George, 
and its great inferiority as a seal-island. I was surprised at the genuine feeling on both sides, because, as far as 
I could judge from a residence on each island, it was a clear case of tweedle-dee and tweedle dum between them, as 
to opportunities and climate necessary for a pleasurable existence. The natives, themselves, are of one and common 
stock, though the number of Creoles on St. George is relatively much larger than on St. Paul; consequently the tone 
of the St. George village is rather more sprightly and vivacious. 

Creature comports. — As far as a purely physical existence goes, the American method of living on and in 
the climate of the Pribylov islands is highly conducive to strength and health. Tea and coffee, seasoned with 
condensed milk and lump sugar; hot biscuits, cakes, and waffles; potatoes, served in every method of cookery; 
salt salmon, cod-fish, and corned beef; mess pork; and, once a week, a fresh roast of beef or steaks; all the 
canned vegetables and fruits; all the potted sauces, jams, and jellies; pies, puddings, and pastries; and the 
exhaustive list of purely sea-faring dishes, such as pea and bean, barley and rice soups, curries, and maccaroni; 
these constitute the staples and many of the luxuries with which the agents of the Alaska Commercial Company 
prolong their existence while living here in the discharge of their duties, and to which they welcome their guests 
for discussion and glad digestion. 

A piano on St. Paul in the company house, an assorted library, embracing over 1,000 volumes, selected from 
standard authors in fiction, science, and history, together with many other unexpected adjuncts of high comfort for 
body and soul, will be found on these islands, wholly unexpected to those who first set foot upon them. A small 
Eussian printed library has also been given by the company to the natives on each island for their special 
entertainment. The rising generation of sealers here, if they read at all, will read our own typography. 
11 



162 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

C*. Food and store shopping op the natives [Section 5]. — Most of these articles of food mentioned heretofore 
are purchased by tbe natives in the company's store at either island ; this food and the wearing apparel, crockery, 
etc., which the company bring up here for the use of the people, is sold to them at the exact cost price of the same, 
plus the expenses of transportation; and, many times within my knowledge, they have bought goods here, at these 
stores, at less rates than they would have been subjected to in San Francisco; the object of the company is not, 
under any circumstances, to make a single cent of profit out of the sale of these goods to the natives; they aim 
only to clear the cost and no more. Instructions to this elect are given to its agents, while those of the government 
are called upon to take notice of the fact. 

The store at St. Paul, as well as that at St. George, has its regular annual " opening" after the arrival of the 
steamer in the spring, to which the natives seem to pay absorbed attention ; they crowd the buildings day and 
night, eagerly looking for all the novelties in food and apparel ; these slouchy men and shawl-hooded women, who 
pack the area before the counters here, seem to feel as deep an interest in the process of shopping as the most 
enthusiastic votaries of that business do in our own streets ; it certainly seems to give them the greatest satisfaction 
of their lives on the Pribylov islands. 

H. Vigilance of the natives [Section 7]. — One of the peculiarities of these people is that they seldom 
undress when they go to bed — neither the men, women, nor children ; and also that at any and all hours of the night 
during the summer season, when I have passed in and out of the village to and from the rookeries, I always found 
several of the natives squatting before their house doors or leaning against the walls, stupidly staring out into the 
misty darkness of the fog, or chatting one with the other over their pipes. A number of the inhabitants, by this 
disposition, are always up and around throughout the settlement during the entire night and day. In olden times, 
and even recently, these involuntary sentinels of the night have often startled the whole village by shouting at the 
top of their voices the pleasant and electric announcement of the " ship's light! " or have frozen it with superstitious 
horror in the recital, at daybreak, of ghostly visions. 

I. Habits op fuk-seal pups [Section 9]. — I have repeatedly watched young pups as they made advances to 
nurse from another pup's mother ; the result invariably being, that while the mother would permit her own offspring 
to suckle freely, yet, when these little strangers touched her nipples, she would either move abruptly away, or else 
turn quickly down upon her stomach, so that the maternal fountains were inaccessible to the alien and hungry 
" kotickie". I have witnessed so many examples of the females turning pups away, to suckle only some particular 
other one, that I feel sure I am entirely right in saying that the seal-mothers know their own young ; and that they 
will not permit any others to nurse save their own. I believe that this recognition of them is due chietiy to the 
mother's scent and hearing. 

J. Parasites of the fuk-seal [Section 9]. — The fur-seal spends a great deal of time, both at sea and on 
land, in scratching its hide ; for it is annoyed by a species of louse, a pediculus, to just about the same degree and in 
the same manner that our dogs are by fleas. To scratch, it sits upon its haunches, and scrapes away with the toe- 
nails of first one and then the other of its hind-flippers ; by which action it reaches readily all portions of its head, 
neck, chest, and shoulders ; and, with either one or the other of its fore-flippers, it rubs down its spinal region back 
of the shoulders to the tail. By that division of labor with its feet, it can promptly reduce, with every sign of 
comfort, any lousy irritation wheresoever on its body. This pediculas peculiar to the fur-seal attaches itself almost 
exclusively to the pectoral regions ; a few, also, are generally found at the bases of the auricular pavilions. 

When the fur-seal is engaged in this exercise, it cocks its head and wears exactly the same expression that our 
common house-dog does while subjugating and eradicating fleas; the eyes are partly or wholly closed; the tongue 
lolls out ; and the whole demeanor is one of quiet but intense satisfaction. 

The fur-seal appears also to scratch itself in the water with the same facility and unction so marked on land; 
only it varies the action by using its fore-hands principally, in its fluvatile exercise, while its hind-feet do most of 
the terrestrial scraping. 

K. Healthiness of the fur-seals [Section 9]. — While I have written with much emphasis upon the total 
absence of any record as to the prevalence of an epidemic in these large rookeries, I should, perhaps, mark the fact 
that no symptoms of internal diseases have ever been noticed here, such as tuberculosis of the lungs, etc., which 
invariably attack and destroy the fur-seal when it is taken into confinement, as well as the sea-lions also; the latter, 
however, have a much greater power of endurance under such artificial circumstances of life. The thousands upon 
thousands of disemboweled Pribylov fur-seal carcasses have never presented abnormal or diseased viscera of any 
kind. 

Li. Behavior of fur-seals at night [Section 9].— I naturally enough, when beginning my investigation of 
these seal-rookeries, expected to find the animals subdued at night, or early morning, on the breeding-grounds; 
but a few consecutive nocturnal watches satisfied me that the family organization and noise was as active at one time 
as at another throughout the whole twenty-four hours. If, however, the day preceding had chanced to be abnormally 
warm, I never failed then to fiud the rookeries much more noisy and active during the night than they were by 
daylight. The seals, as a rule, come and go to and from the sea, fight, roar, and vocalize as much during midnight 
moments as they do at noonday times. An aged native endeavored to satisfy me that the "seecatckie" could 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 163 

see much better by twilight and night than by daylight. I am not prepared to prove to the contrary, but I think 
tbat the fact of his not being able to see so well himself at that hour of darkness was the true cause of most of bis 
belief in the improved nocturnal vision of the seals. 

As I write, this old Aleut, Phillip Vollkov, has passed to his final rest — "un konehielsah" winter of 1878-'79. 
He was one of the real characters of St. Paul ; he was esteemed by the whites on account of his relative intelligence, 
and beloved by the natives, who called him their "wise man", and who exulted in his piety. Pbillip, like the other 
people there of bis kind, was not much comfort to me when I asked questions as to the seals. He usually answered 
important inquiries by crossing himself, and replying, "God knows." There was no appeal from this. 

M. Sullenness op old male seals [Section 10].— The old males, when grouped together by themselves, 
at the close of the breeding-season, indulge in no humor or frolicsome festivities whatsoever. On tbe contrary, they 
treat each otber with surly indifference. The mature females, however, do not appear to lose their good nature to 
anything like so marked a degree as do their lords and masters, for they will at all seasons of their presence on the 
islands be observed, now and then, to suddenly unbend from severe matronly gravity by coyly and amiably tickling 
and gently teasing one another, as they rest in the harems, or later, when strolling in September. There is no sign 
given, however, by these seal-mothers of desire or action in fondling or caressing their pups; nor do the young 
appear to sport with any others than the pups themselves, when together. Sometimes a yearling and a five or six 
mouths-old pup will have a long-continued game between themselves. They are decidedly clannish in this respect — 
creatures of caste, like Hindoos. 

JV. Leafing out of water: "Dolphin jumps" [Section 10]. — As I never detected the sea-lions or the 
hair-seals leaping from the water around these islands, in those peculiar dolphin-like jumps which I have hitherto 
described, I made a note of it early during my first season of observation, for corroboration in the next. It is 
so: neither the sea-lion nor the hair-seal here ever leaped from the ocean in this agile and singular fashion 
heretofore described. Allen, so conservative usually, seems, however, to have fallen into an error by reading the 
notes of Mr. J. H. Blake, descriptive of the sea-lions of the Gallapagos islands. As Allen quotes them entire in a 
foot-note (page 211, History of North American Pinnipeds), I am warranted in calling attention to the fact, that no 
authentic record has as yet been made of such peculiar swimming by Phocidw, or the sea-lion branch of the Otariidiv. 
My notice has been called to this mistake by Professor Allen's own note, page 367, upon a quotation from my work, 
citing Mi\ Blake's notes above referred to, which are themselves very interesting, but do not even hint at a dolphin- 
jump. 

How fast the fur-seal can swim, when doing its best, I am naturally unable to state. I do know that a squad 
of young "holluschickie" followed the "Eeliance", in which I was sailing, down from the latitude of the seal- 
islands to Akootan pass with perfect ease ; playing around the vessel, while she was logging straight ahead, 14 knots 
to the hour. 

The fur seal, the sea lion, the walrus, and the hair-seal all swim around these islands, and in these waters, 
submerged, extended horizontally and squarely upon their stomachs. I make this note here because I am surprised 
to read [on page G51, Allen: Hist. N. A. Pinnipeds] that the harp (hair) seal's "favorite position when swimming, as 
affirmed by numerous observers, is on the back or side, in which position they also sleep in the water". Although 
this is a far distant, geographically speaking, relative of the hair-seal of St. Paul island, yet the remarkable 
difference in fashion of swimming seems hardly warranted, when the two animals are built exactly alike. Still, I 
have no disposition to question, earnestly, the truth of the statement, inasmuch as I have learned of so many very 
striking radical differences in habits of animals as closely related, as to pause, ere seriously doubting this assertion 
that a harp-seal's favorite way in swimming is to lie upon its back when so doing. It is simply an odd contradiction 
to the method employed by the hair-seals of the North Pacific and of Bering sea. 

While I am unable to prove tbat the fur-seal possesses the power to swim to a very great depth, by actual tests 
instituted, yet I am free to say that it certainly can dive to the uttermost depths, where its food-fish are known to 
live in the ocean; it surely gives full and ample evidence of possessing the muscular power for that enterprise. 
In this connection, it is interesting to cite the testimony of Mr. F. Borthen, the proprietor of the Fro islands, a group 
of small islets off Trondhjems fiord, in Norway; this gentleman has had an opportunity of watching the gray-seal 
(Ualivhccrus grypus) as it bred and rested on these rocks during an extended period of time. Among many 
interesting notes as to the biology of this large hair-seal, he says, "As a proof that they (the seals) fetch their food 
from a considerable depth, it is related that a few years ago a young one was found caught by one of the hooks of a 
fishing line that was placed at a depth of between 70 and 80 fathoms, on the outer side of the islands. Gray-seals 
have several times been seen to come up to the surface with lings (Molra vulgaris) and other deep-water fishes in 
their mouths, such fishes seldom or never found at a less depth than between 00 and 70 fathoms."— [Robert Collett 
oh the Gray Seal, Proc. Zool. Sge., London: Part ii, 1881, p. 387.] 

O. Monstrosities among the seals. — Touching this question of monstrosities, I was led to examine a 
number of alleged examples presented to my attention by the natives, who took some interest, in their sluggish way, 
as to what I was doing here. They brought me an albino fur-seal pup, nothing else, and gravely assured me that 
they knew it owed its existence to the fecundation of a sea-lion cow by a fur-seal bull ; "if not so, how could it get 
that color?" I was also confronted with a specimen — a full and finely grown four-year-old Callorhinns which had, 



164 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

at some earlier day, lost its testicles either by fighting or accident while at sea ; perhaps shaven off by the fangs of 
a saw toothed shark, and also gravely asked to subscribe to the presence of a hermaphrodite ! 

Undoubtedly some abnormal birth-shapes must make their appearance occasionally ; but, at no time while I 
was there, searching keenly for any such manifestation of malformation on the rookeries, did I see a single 
example. The morphological symmetry of the fur-seal is one of the most salient of its characteristics, viewed as 
it rallies here in such vast numbers ; but the osteological differentiation and asymmetry of this animal is equally 
surprising. 

P. The derivation of the nomenclature of the rookeries. The Eeef rookery — "The Eeef ", so-called 
on account of that dangerous line of submerged rocks, scarcely awash, which makes out to the southward from 
the point. The very first seals of the season usually land here every spring. 

Zoltoi haitling-grounds.— From "Zolotoi", or "golden", a Eussian title given to the beach on account, perhaps, 
of its beauty, contrasted with the rough, rocky coasts elsewhere on the island. There is no trace of precious mineral 
in its composition, however, or even the glint of iron pyrites. 

Gorbotch rookery.— "Gorbotch", or "humpback"; this name doubtless given it from the broken-backed outline 
to the west shore of the reef peninsula, on which the rookery is located. 

Nah Speel rookery. — "Nah Speel", corrupted from "speetsah", or point, why so distorted I have not satisfactorily 
learned from the people. It arises from some localism, undoubtedly, pertinent long ago, but since forgotten. 

lukannon rookery. — "Lukannon"; so named after one of the Eussian pioneers, a sailor, who is said to have 
taken from St. Paul island in 17S7, over 5,000 sea-otters, aided by another promyshlenik, named Kaiekov ; in the 
following year they only secured 1,000; and since then none have ever been taken from there to notice; while 
during the last forty years not one, even, has been seen. 

Keetavie rookery.—" Keetavie", from "Keet", or Whale. When the whaling fleets were active in these waters, 
lS49-'56, a very large right whale, killed by some ship's crew, drifted ashore at the point here, and has thus given 
this name to it. 

Tolstoi rookery. — "Tolstoi", or "thick". This is an indefinite name which the Bussians use all over their 
geography of Alaska, just as we employ "Deer Creek" or "Muddy Fork" in our topographical nomenclature of 
the West. This point at St. Paul is, however, a thick and solid one; more so than any other headland there. 

Zapadnie rookery. — "Zapadnie," or "westward"; one of the few bear stories, which the natives told me, in 
response to my queries as to the presence of polar "medvaidskie" in early times, is located between Boga Slov and 
Zapadnie point; there are one or two rude basaltic caves on the slopes of this hill, into which the natives can 
squeeze themselves by great effort; here, they have declared to me, that as recently as 1848, a large polar bear 
lived and infested the island for some time. It was finally shot by a posse comitatus of the people, who were assisted 
by an English whale-boat's crew that, noticing the skurry on land, came ashore and joined in the hunt, armed with 
their lances. No record is made of bruin on the Pribylov since the death of this one. It undoubtedly was astray 
from St. Matthew island, two hundred miles to the northward. Prior to this event, the natives count several bear 
fights and routs — at wide intervals, however — since the occupation of the islands. 

Polavina rookery. — "Polavina", or "halfway"; so named because the point and the old deserted village site 
contiguous was nearly half-way between Novastoshnah and the village. An officer of the government, C. P. Fish, 
United States Signal Service, in 1S74, started out to measure anew the height of Polavina Sopka; he strapped a 
barometer to his shoulders, and left the village early one July morning. The fog thickened up that noon rather 
more solidly than usual, and when he came down he missed the sealers' well-defined trad between Northeast point 
and Lukannon, and brought up on the shore of that little round lake, just southwest of the point. He actually 
passed the whole of the remaining daylight, six or seven hours, in walking around it, and declared that he would 
never have left this unconscious circular tramp had the fog, as is usual, not lifted just at late evening and given him 
better bearings. He never knew or suspected untU then that he was walking in his own tracks. This is a true fog 
story. 

Novastoshnah rookery.— "A place of recent growth," so named from the fact that in early times— 1787-'90— 
Hutchinson's hill formed an island distinct and well-defined from St. Paul; the people then used to go from Yesolia 
Mista over to Northeast point in boats. 

The St. George rookeries.— There is nothing peculiar to the nomenclature of the St. George rookeries; 
they all bear English names around the village, while "Zapadnie" is named simply as it lies west therefrom, and 
" Starry AteeV because it is near the site of an old settlement on the island. 

First arrivals of " holltw !Hickie " usually appear May 14th-15th.— The first "driving", for the 
season, of the "holluschickie" seldom takes place sooner than the 12th or 15th of May; then only small numbers 
are secured, usually on the Eeef point at St. Paul, and at the Great Eastern rookery on St. George; they are driven 
thus early for food, though the skins are always carefully taken and accepted by the company; the sealing season 
opens lawfully by the 1st of June and closes on the 15th of August. But in practice it does not begin until the 
12th-14th of June and ends by the 20th-25th of July. 

Annual croaking by the sealers. — I noticed in this connection a very queer similarity between the sealers 
on St. Paul and our farmers at home; they, just as the season opens, invariably prophesy a bad year for seals and a 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



165 



scant supply; then when the season closes they will gravely tell you that there never were so many seals on the 
island before! I was greeted in this manner by the agents of the company and the government in 1872, again in 
1873, and again in 1871. I did not get up to the grounds in 187G soon enough to hear the usual spring croaking of 
of disaster; but arrived, however, in time to hear the regular cry of "never was so many seals here before"! 

40. FINAL NOTES AND TABLES EELATIYE TO THE YALUE, PROTECTION, AND GROWTH OF 
THE FUR-SEAL; AND THE REVENUE DERIVED FROM THAT INDUSTRY ON THE 

PRD3YLOV ISLANDS. 

An exhibit of values given by Veniaminov. — Pt. i: Znpicskie, etc., p. S3, showing the relative importance, 
commercially, of the land and marine furs taken from the Oonalashka district (and sold) in 1833, by the Russian 
American Company. (This district embraces the Pribylov islands.) 



Number of 
skins. 



Price per skin. 



Sum of 
value. 



Reduced to 
our currency. 



Remarks by the author, n. W. E. 



Sea-otters 

Black foxes 

Cross foxes 

Red foxes 

Blue foxes 

Land-otters 

Fur-seals 

Walrus-ivory 

Whalebone 

Miscellaneous furs- 
Sum total 



1,500 

80 

15, 000 

100 poods. 

200 poods. 



450 paper rubles. 
150 paper rubles. 

25 paper rubles. 

10 paper rubles. 

10 paper rubles. 

50 paper rubles. 

50 paper rubles. 

80 paper rubles. 

40 paper rubles. 



$9, 000 
9,000 
3,000 
1,000 
3,000 
800 
150, 000 
1,600 
1,000 



Enhydra marina. 

Tulpes /ulvus var. argcntatui. 

Tulpes fulv-us var. decussatus. 

Yulpcs fuhms. 

Yutpes lagopus. 

Lxttra canadensis. 

Callorhinus urrimu. 

A "poodis SGfa pounds avoirdupois. 

The baleen from the right whale, ISalama. 

Deer and sea-lion skins, odds and ends, oto. 



The country (Alaska) is divided up into 5 districts : Sitka, Kadiak, Oonalashka, Atka, and the North. 

This whole country is under the control and government of the " Russian-American Company". * * * The 
business is conducted with a head, or a colonial governor, assisted by officers of the Imperial navy (Russian), and 
those of the company's fleet, and other chiefs ; in every one of the districts the company has an office, which is 
uuder the direction of an office chief (or agent), and he in turn has foremen (or "bidarsheeks"). 

The company on the island of St. Paul killed from 60,000 to S0,000 fur-seals per annum, but in the last time 
(1833?), with all possible care in getting them, they took only 12,000. On the island of St. George, instead of getting 
40,000 or 35,000, only 1,300 were killed. * * * [Veniaminov: Zapieskie, etc., pt. i: chap, xii, 1810.] 

The table and extracts which I quote above give me the only direct Russian testimony as to the value of the 
Pribylov fur-seal catch when the skins were in scant supply. It will be seen that they were worth then just $10 each. 

I now append a brief but significant extract from Techmainov — significant simply because it demonstrates that 
all Russian testimony, other than Veniaminov's, is utterly self-contradictory in regard to the number of seals taken 
from the Pribylov islands. Techmainov first gives a series of tables which he declares are a true transcript and exh i I >it 
of the skins sold out of Alaska by the Russian-American Company. The latest table presented, and up to the date 
of his writing, 1862, shows that 372,891 fur-seal skins were taken from the Pribylov islands, via Sitka, to the Russian 
markets of the world, in the years 1812-1802, inclusive; or giving an average catch of 18,641 per annum, (p. 221.) 
Then further on as he writes (nearly one hundred pages), he stultifies his record above quoted by using the language 
and figures as follows : 

"In earlier times more were taken than in the later; at present (1862) there are taken from the island of St. 
Paul 70,000 annually without diminishing the number for future killing; on St. George, 6,000. * * * From 1842 
to 1861 there were taken from the island of St. Paul 277,778 seal skins; blue foxes, 10,508; walrus teeth, 104 poods; 
from St. George, 31,923 fur-seals; blue foxes, 24,286." [P. Techmainov: JScstorccheslcoi Obozerainia Obrazovania, 
RussianAmerican Company; pt. ii, p. 310, 1863, St. Petersburg.] Further comment is unnecessary upon this author, 
who thus writes a "history of the doings of the Russian-American Company". Still, since Veniaminov's time, 
1838-'40, it is the only prima facie testimony that we have touching these subjects while under Russian domination. 

Russian governors controlling the Pribylov islands. — The following list gives the names of the 
several autocratic governors of the Russian-American Company, who, in their order of mention, exercised absolute 
control over the the Pribylov islands between 1799 and 1867, inclusive ; 1, Baranov ; 2, Yahnovskie ; 3, Mooray vev ; 
4, Chestyahkov; 5, Wraugell ; 6, Kooprianov ; 7, Etholine; 8, Tebenkov; 9, Rossenburg; 10, Yiaviatskie ; 11, 
Foragel; 12, Maxsutov. Of the above, with the exception of Baranov, who was a self-made man, and General 
Yiaviatskie, of the Russian army, all the others were admirals and captains in the Imperial navy of Russia. 

Fikst exemption of females in driving. — In the details of an old letter from a Creole agent of the 
Russian-American Company, on St. Paul, in 1817, I find the following side reference to the number of skins which 
were shipped from the Pribylov islands that season: [Ms. letter of Kazean Shiesneekov, St. Paul island, 1817.] 
5,606 "holluschickoi " (young males). 
1,894 "sairiee" [foui and (ivo year-old males), ..i a total of 7,497, 



166 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

This is interesting because it is the record of the first killing on the seal-islands when the females were entirely 
exempted from slaughter. 

The seal-islands were the exchequer of the Etjssian- American Company: 1799-1825. — "The 
Russians in their colonial possession under Baranov, made, first, the seal-skin the basis of all transactions with 
foreigners, by buying up whole cargoes of goods and provisions brought into this country by English and American 
traders, and paying for the same in this way. In other words, the seal-islands were the exchequer where 
the Russian authorities could with certainty turn and lay their hands upon the necessary currency. These 
American, English, and other foreign sea-captaius, having disposed of their supplies at Sitka or Kadiak in this 
manner, took their fur-seal skins to China and disposed of them at a handsome advance for tea, rice, etc., in 
exchange. Tlie profits made by these foreigners having reached the ears of the Russian home management of the 
fur company controlling Alaska, it was ordered then that payments in fur-seal skins for these foreign supplies 
should cease, and that the Russians themselves would ship their skins to China and enjoy the emolument thereof. 
The result of this action was that the Chinese market did not prove as valuable to them as it was to the foreigners; 
it became overstocked, and a general stagnation and depression of the seal-business took place and continued until 
a change of base, in this respect, was again made, and the skins of the fur-seal were shipped, together with the 
beaver, in bulk to the great Chinese depot of Kiachta, where the Russians exchanged these peltries for the desired 
supplies of tea; the trade thereof assuming such immense proportions that the record is made where, in a single 
year, the Eussian Fur Company paid to their government the enormous duty upon importations of tea alone of 
2,000,000 silver rubles, or $1,500,000. This was the period in the history of the seal-islands when, for a second 
time, and within the writing of Veniaminov, the seal-life thereon was well nigh exterminated. The first decimation 
of these interests took place in the last decade of the eighteenth century and shortly after the discovery of the 
islands, when, it is stated, 2,000,000 skins of these animals were rotting on the ground at one time. Eezanov 
applied the correction very promptly in the first instance of threatened extermination of these valuable interests, 
and when the second epoch of decimation occurred in 1834 to 1S36, Baron Wrangell, admirably seconded by Father 
Veniaminov, checked its consumption. These are instances of care and far-sightedness which are refreshing to 
contemplate." — Ivan Petrov: Eept. on Pop. and Resources of Alaska; Ex. Bog. No. 40, A6th Cong., 3d Sess., 1S81. 

Irregularity of the appearance of pelagic fur-seals. — While investigating the subject of the actual 
numbers of fur-seals secured at sea, outside of the Pribylov islands, I learned from Captain Lewis (Hudson Bay 
Company's " Otter") that these animals never appear from season to season along the northwest coast, in the same 
general aggregate. For illustration, he cited the fact that in 1872, "immense numbers of fur-seal pups and yearlings" 
were observed in the ocean off Vancouver's island and the entrance to Fuca straits, "but last year (1873) very few 
of them again were seen." He thought that in the case of the unwonted abundance of fur-seals there during 1872, it 
was due to the fact "that these young seals must have lost their bearings, somewhat, in going north, and ran into 
the coast for a better point of departure". He declared, also, that fur-seals had never, during his 30 year's service 
on the northwestern coast, been known to appear in such great numbers before, nor did any other Hudsou Bay man 
know to the contrary. In 1872 he thought that "8,000 to 9,000 skins, chiefly pups and yearlings" would be a fair 
estimate of the entire quantity taken ; for 1873 his figures showed only " 600 or 700 skins — these were all older 
ones". 

Eecent erroneous statements in regard to pelagic birth of fur-seals. — Allen [in his History of 
Worth American Pinnipeds, pp. 772-773] quotes a writer, who declares that any statement that the fur-seal breeds 
alone on the Pribylov islands to the exclusion of all other grounds on the northwest coast of America and Alaska, 
is "preposterous to his mind". This author claims to know by his "own personal observation" that the fur-seal 
does "have pups in open ocean off the entrance to Fuca straits"! On the contrary, I assert that it is a physical 
impossibility for the Callorhinus to bring forth its young alive in the water; the pup would sink like a stone 
instantly after birth, and the mother be wholly helpless to save it. 

I should not heed this statement of Mr. Swan, reinforced by that of an old sailor, so gravely entered by Allen, 
were it not for his introduction on the following page (773) of an innocent statement of fact by Prof. D. S. Jordan, 
who by it is unfortunately made to appear in the light of sustaining the idle theory of pelagic birth. Jordan's 
simple announcement that he had seen a "live fur-seal pup [June 1, 1880] at Cape Flattery, taken from an old seal 
just killed, showing that the time of bringing them forth was just at hand", is correct as far as it goes; but 
remember, that this pup had been alive in its mother's womb for three months prior to the day Jordan saw it; and, 
ten days or three weeks later at the longest, this parent, if undisturbed, would have naturally brought it forth in 
the ftdlness of time on either St. Paul or St. George, of the Pribylov group. She could have made the journey 
there in six or seven days easdy from Fuca straits, if she had been pressed to do so by the expiration of her period 
of gestation. 

Naturally enough, the careful naturalist, like Allen, no matter how able, will be deceived now and then in 
this manner, by untrustworthy statements made by those who are supposed to know by personal observation of 
what they affirm. Mr. Swan has passed nearly an average lifetime on the northwest coast, chiefly in the waters of 
Washington territory, and has rendered to natural science and to ethnology efficient and valuable service by his 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 167 

labor in collecting, and his notes in regard to the Makab Indians of Capo "Flattery: hence liis erroneous statements 
above referred to (as to the fur seal) had a prima facie weight with Allen, who, therefore, inserted them, and thus 
gave the romance an appearance of reality, which I cannot pass by in silence. The other, though hesitating, 
authority, Charles Bryant, is an old mariner, who has also been well situated by virtue of eight years' residence Oil 
St. Paul island; he ought to know better. 

ORIGINAL SOURCE OF ERROR IN REGARD TO NUBILITY OF FEMALE FUR-SEALS. — Ycnidlilinnr : Zapiertie, ob 
Oonala&likenskaho Otdayla: Yeniaminov little dreamed, as he labored over his queer calculations in 1834, that the 
then depleted rookeries of the Pribylov islands would have yielded, from 1868 to date, an annual average of more 
than three times 32,000 fur-seal skins; which number he at that time deemed the maximum limit of their ultimate 
production, should his tabulated advice be carried out. Is it not exceedingly strange that he never thought, during 
all his cogitations over this problem, of the real vital principle — of letting the females entirely alone — of sparing 
them strictly? I think that the worthy Bishop would have done so, had he passed more time on the rookeries 
himself. I cannot find, however, who the Russian was that had the good judgment, first of all men, to inaugurate 
a perpetual "zapooska" of the females on the Pribylov islands; it was done in 1847, for the first time, and has been 
rigidly followed ever since, giviug the full expansion in 1857 to that extraordinary increase and beneficial result 
which we observe thereon to-day. I have been much amused in reading [Allen: Hist. Pinnipeds, p. 383] the 
argument of an old sailor, who had been stationed for eight years on these islands in charge of the United States 
Treasury interests. He claims to feel well assured that the female seals, when two years old, never land on the 
islands during that season of their age; remaining out at sea, and not coming to the Pribylov rookeries until their 
third year of growth! thus bearing their first young when four years old. I mention the fact, because it is not an 
original error of the aged treasury agent, but is evidently adopted from this account of Veniaminov, which was 
verbally translated and read to him in 1S69, on St. Paul island, by one of the ex-agents of the Russian Company. 
The erroneous statement, however, is quoted in Allen: Pinnipeds (p. 383), with a grave preface by the author, 
that it is the result of eight years' study of the subject on the islands. Unfortunately, Veniaminov, himself, did 
not spend even eight consecutive weeks on the seal-grounds in question, and had he passed eight months there, 
investigating the matter, he would not — could not — have made this superficial blunder, in addition to his numerous 
other faulty announcements, etc., which the " ZapiesMe" teems with, in regard to the seal-life. 

Causes which occasion and demand the presence* of a revenue-marine cuttee in Alaskan waters. — 
There remains an unwritten page in the history of the action of the government toward the projection of seal-life 
on the Pribylov islands, and it is eminently proper that it should be inscribed now, especially so since the author 
of this memoir was an eye-witness and an actor in the scene. When he first visited the seal-islands, in 1872-'73, 
he was compelled to take passage on the vessels of the company leasing the islands; compelled, because the 
government at that time had no means of reaching the field of action, except by the favor and the courtesy of 
the Alaska Commercial Company. This favor and this courtesy, as might be expected, was always promptly and 
generously proffered, and has never been alluded to as even an obligation or service rendered the Treasury 
Department. But, nevertheless, the thought occurred to me at the time, and was strengthened into conviction by 
1874, that this indifference to its own self-respect and failure to support properly the aims of its agents up there, 
should end; and that the Treasury Department should detail one of its own vessels to visit, transport, and aid its 
officers on the Pribylov islands, and also be an actual living evidence of power to execute the law protecting and 
conserving the same. 

In this sequence, do not misunderstand me; while the Alaska Commercial Company never entertained, and 
do not now entertain, the thought of refusing the favor asked by the government in transporting its own treasury 
officials to and from the seal-islands, yet, it would be a relief to that company if those agents aforesaid should be 
carried up and down upon the vessels of the government — a relief solely on the ground that a carping criticism 
is always made upon their courtesy and kindness in this respect, and a corresponding reflection thrown upon the 
treasury agents, who are compelled to take this method of conveyance, or else be absent from their field of duty, which 
the company does not propose to effect by barring them from its steamer, the aforesaid criticism notwithstanding. 

Therefore, upon the occasion of my return from the field in question, October, 1874, 1 clearly recognized the 
immediate necessity of strengthening the arm of the government in that region, because, iu addition to the 
foregoing reason, the following still more urgent one existed and exists : 

Early in 1873 it became well known on the Pacific coast, that the officers of the law on the seal-islands had no 
means of enforcing the regulations protecting the seal-life on the same or in the waters adjacent ; hence, a number 
of small craft, fitted out at San Francisco and contiguous ports, which cleared for the northwest coast and the 
Aleutian islands on "fishing ventures' 1 ; but, in reality, these vessels proceeded directly to the waters and rocks 
adjacent to the seal-islands, where, in plain sight of the villages on either islet, they shot the swimming seals with 
assumed indifference and great affection of legality ! 

In order, therefore, t hat I his plain violation of law and its disastrous consequence should be effectually punished, 
and evaded, I published, and personally urged in 1874-'77, the urgent need and great propriety of enabling the 
responsible agents of the government on the Pribylov islands, to enforce the law as well physically as it could be 



168 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



done theoretically ; arid pointed clearly then to the advantage and effect which a revenue marine cutter would have, 
employed for this purpose. By repeated and untiring appearance hefore the Committee on Appropriations in the 
House and the Senate, I finally secured the legal authority and the money for the ohject in view. And the late 
Captain Baily, in the " Richard Bush ", made the first cruise in the season of 1S77, that had been ordered and 
sustained by the government toward the direct protection of the seal-islands, and its valuable property thereon 
since 1809. 

The interesting Alaskan reports, which have arisen from the incidental cruisings of the " Bush " and the 
"Corwin", United States Bevenue Marine, owe their origin to the above chain of circumstances, and this service, 
so efficient and so valuable, will, I trust, be faithfully sustained by the government in the future. 

The atjthok's closing presentation of the subject. — As I end this memoir, I am aware of one omission 
which should not be overlooked. It is the absence of a concise and condensed table, which shall exhibit at a glance 
the whole physical progress made by the fur-seal, from birth to advanced puberty. Therefore, I submit the 
following presentation of that subject : 

Table shotting the relative growth, weight, etc., of the fur-seals. 

[Compiled from the field-notes of the author, mado npon the killing-grounds of St. George and St. Paul.] 



Growth. 
(A fair average example.) 


1 day old. 


6 months 
old. 


1 year old. 


2 years 
old. 


3 years 
old. 


4 years 
old. 


5 years 
old. 


6 years old. 


7 years old. 


8 years old. 


Remarks. 


Callorhinus ursimts (male) . 


Length. 
12 to 13 in. 

12 to 13 in. 

Girth. 
9tol0iin. 

9 to 10 in. 

Lbs. 
5to7i 

5 to 7 


Length. 
24 in. 

24 in. 

Girth. 

25 in. 

25 in. 

Lbs. 
39 

39 


Length. 
38 in. 

37 in. 

Girth. 
25 in. 

25 in. 

Lbs. 
40 

39 


Length. 
45 In. 

42£in. 

Girth. 
30 in. 

30 in. 

Lbs. 
58 

56 


Length. 
52 in. 

48 in. 

Girth. 
36 in. 

34 in. 

Lbs. 
87 

60 


Length. 
58 in. 

50 in. 

Girth. 
42 in. 

36 in. 

Lbs. 
135 

62 


Length. 
65 in. 

Ceases. 

• Girth. 
52 in. 

37 in. 

Lbs. 
200 

75 


Length. 
72 in. 


Length. 
75 to 80 in. 


Length. 
Ceases. 


Direct, from tip of nose 
to root of tail. 


GIKTH. 

(Immediately behind fore- 
flippers.) 

Callorhinus ursinus (male) . 


Girth. 
64 in. 

Ceases. 

Lbs. 
280 to 350 

Ceases. 


Girth. 
70 to SO in. 


Girth. 
80 to 84 in. 


8 year old citation an 
estimate only. 


weight (avoirdupois). 
Callorhinus ursinus (male) . 


Lbs. 
400 to 500 


Lbs. 
500 to 600 


7 and 8 year estimates 
are not 'based upon ac- 
tual weights ; an opin- 
ion merely. 











^ote. — All male fur-seals, from yearlings to puberty, are termed "bachelors", or "hollusehickie", and all male fur-seals, from the age of five years on, are termed 
("virile") bulls, or "seacatchie". All female fur-seals from one year and upward, are termed "cows", or "matkamie" ("mothers"). All the young, under 
yearlings, are termed "pups", or "kotickie" ("little cats"). 



In conclusion I desire to state that, as to the relative ages of the male and female Callorhinus, I have hitherto, 
in referring to it, taken the general ground of estimation which is commonly accepted in rating the duration of 
mammalian life. Nevertheless, on this point especially, I feel that if the real facts of the comparative longevity 
of the two sexes could be positively ascertained, the great discrepancy which the table above faithfully portrays 
and suggests, would be so modified as to make the relative length of life for the female much greater, and that 
of the male correspondingly less. 

In my discussion of the reproduction of these animals, I clearly show that the male is physically qualified to 
procreate his race at the age of four years — but that he is not allowed to do so until he is six or seven. Also, 
that the female becomes a mother at the expiration of the third year of her life, and the immediate opening of the 
fourth. So, really, viewed from the point of sheer physical ability, if undisturbed, the male fur-seal wears the " toga 
virilis" at the close of the third and beginning of the fourth year of his life, while the female comes out eager for 
fecundation and prospective maternity at the end of the second and the beginning of the third summer of her 
existence. 

Tabulated exhibit op method of killing, and seasons of the yeae in which it is done, on the 
Peibylov islands. — In order that the reader may the more clearly understand the time of killing, the seasons in 
which it is done, and the relative selection of the different classes of seals for slaughter, food, etc., I take much 
satisfaction in being able to submit the following tabulation, which gives at a glance a succinct and comprehensive 
epitome of one entire sealing-season and its work on the Pribylov islands. This table is literally brought down to 
date, and the figures upon which it is based I have taken from the recent official report of Col. H. G. Otis, who is 
the treasury agent in charge of the interests of. the government therein represented. I ought, also, in simple 
justice to the authority from whom I have taken these enumerations, to state that those specifications of fact are 
evidently compiled from his field-notes with scrupulous attention, both in their original registration, and also in 
their transcription. As I here arrange them, they present a photograph of the entire disposition of 107,000 fur- 
seals slain upon the seal -islands during one whole year. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



169 



Tulle shotting the numbers slain, the time of so doing, the character, and the disposition made of the fur-seal on the 

Pribylov group for one year ending July 20, 1SS1. 





Number of fur-seals killed for 
natives' food. 


Holluschickic killed for their 
skins. 


Grand sum total 




Months; time of slaughter. 


3 


ft 


Eejected skins. 


1 


id 

a 

GO 


Rejected skins. 




"■a 

= i 
- u 


Remarks. 




0-S 


>> 1 
& O 


|-s 


4 li 

o :r 




8AIKT PAUL ISLAXD. 












228 










228 
10 

371 




Generally, a few skins left behind every 
season. 

Two year old males and a fowycarlings, 
principally. 

Two and three year old males generally. 

Two year old niale.s chiefly. 

Two and three year old males princi- 
pally. 

Pups killed "by express permission of 
the Secretary of the Treasury. 

Very fine skins ; remaining latest on the 
islands. 




261 

C22 
G61 
453 

540 

1,248 

1,058 
176 




5 


233 


13 










261 

622 
661 
463 

4,940 

1,251 

1,058 
176 

35, 160 




















661 
393 

54 
















10 

4,400 

3 


10 

4,401 

14 














60 

480 

1,201 

1,041 
171 

35, 130 




5 
36 
13 






































5 














Very fine skins ; first arrivals, two and 

three year old males. 
Very fine skins ; two and three year 

old males chiefly. 








34,836 
40, 969 


294 
339 


11 
14 


16 
23 


3 


























5, 019 \ 4, 413 


4, 439 1, 341 67 


76, 033 633 


25 ! 39 | 3 


80,000 85,937 








BAE.T GEOBGE ISLAND. 












25 










25 

147 

266 

58 

1 

10 
46 

87 

8,133 
11, 227 




A few skins always left behind — not 

properly cured. 
Two year old males, principally. 
Two and three year old males, usually. 




147 

277 
122 
63 

10 
46 
87 


















147 
277 
122 
563 

805 
81 
87 

8,166 

11,257 






11 


















64 
62 
















500 

795 
35 


500 

795 
35 














Pups, killed by express permission of 
the Secretary of the Treasury. 
































Two and threeyearold males ;fineskins. 
Two and three year old males ; first 

arrivals of the new seeding year. 
Very fine skins; two and three year 

old males chiefly. 




























8,133 




1 


31 
25 


1 






























752 1,330 1,341 126 | | 3.9,385 


1 


56 6 


20, 000 | 21, 505 








Pribylov catch for 1880 (St. Paul 
and St. George islands) : 


5,771 


5,743 


5,780 


1, 467 07 


93, 418 


633 


26 




100, 000 


107,442 

















Explanatory ctoqients upon the above table. — It will be at once noticed that, in the result of this 
last season's work on the Pribylov islands, as illustrated so clearly above, the Alaska Commercial Company 
has taken its full annual legal quota of 100,000 fur-seal skins therefrom. I call attention to it, because it is the first 
season in which the company has done so ; it has never heretofore permitted more than 99,800, in round numbers, 
to be taken and charged to its account, preferring to always be a little within the mark, on account of the exceeding 
difficulty of reconciling the enumeration of the two sets of government officers, when their counts are placed side 
by side. For instance, the ltst of the treasury agent on the islands, when the skins are first shipped, is the official 
indorsement of the company's catch for the year; but when the snip reaches San Francisco, then these skins are all 
counted over anew by another staff of government agents. Should the tally of the seal-island agent be defective, 
and show that it was so by the recount of the custom-house officers in San Francisco, then did it run over 100,000 
skins, the company would have an annoying and unpleasant explanation to make; while the resident treasury 
agent would be charged with maladministration of his affairs. Therefore, as it has never happened before, until 
this season of 1SS1, that the two counts at San Francisco and St. Paul have agreed to a unit, tlie company has given 
strict and imperative orders that no more than 99,800 or 99,850 skins shall be annually taken by its agents from the 
seal-islands. Taking the full quota of this season of 1881, was contrary to its express direction. 



170 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

It is an exceedingly difficult matter to count these skins, precisely to a dot, when they are rapidly hustled into 
the baidars and then tossed below the decks of the rolling, pitching ship which receives them; a rough sea may be 
running, a gale of wind howling through the rigging, and a thick fog shrouding all in its wet gloom. I believe, 
therefore, from my own full experience in this important matter, that it is a physical impossibility, at many seasons 
of shipment, to tally accurately every pelt as it enters the vessel's hold, when loaded off' the islands here. The 
Treasury agent who comes within 100 to 150 skins, more or less, of the true 100,000, or in that ratio to the whole 
catch, as it may be, is doing all that he possibly can under the circumstances. Naturally, the custom-house tally is 
considered the most accurate, by reason of the great physical advantages attendant ; and, upon its certification the 
company pays the tax levied by law. 

Useless slaughter of the pups. — The observer will also notice, that during the last season, viz, July 20, 
1880, to July 20, 1881, as shadowed in the foregoing table, more than 7,000 seals were killed for food, the skins of 
which were simply wasted— never used; and of that aggregate we find nearly 6,000, or about nine-tenths of the 
entire loss, to be "pups". At this point, and in this connection, I desire to enter my protest against the useless 
and wholly uncalled-for slaughter of these pups, which is annually permitted and inadvertently ordered, with the 
best of spirit, by the Secretary of the Treasury. It is a shiftless legacy of the old Eussian Company, which the 
present admirable conduct of business on the Pribylov islands really renders superfluous and wasteful; it is simply 
catering to a gastronomic weakness of the Aleuts, that should not be considered, inasmuch as the supply and the 
flesh of the two and three year-old males is fully good enough ; and most of the skins taken from such animals late 
in October and thereon to the end of the year, will be accepted as prime by the company, and counted in the regular 
annual quota for exportation. I have in this matter, however, been quite as much at fault as the Secretary himself; 
more so, because I have not hitherto directed attention to it; it escaped my mind in 1874, and I have not had 
occasion to recall it until the present writing. 

The season op 1881 a vert creditable one. — The exhibit given above, of the work performed in the 
height of the sealing season, June and July, is a better one, even, than any one which has passed prior to it under 
my supervision. In other words, the number of cut or rejected skins is almost infinitesimal compared with the 
huge aggregate accepted; and, were it not for the wasted pup skins, this presentation of the field -labor on the 
seal-islands for 18S1, would be a very clean and economic synopsis.* 

The thought also occurred to me, when regarding this special point of the relative improvement in the method 
of killing and handling seals and pelts, that a very simple yet trustworthy notice, as to the increase or diminution 
of the seal-life, would be served annually in the following manner : in 1872, 1 observed that the natives never had 
any difficulty in getting their full quota of " holluschickie " daily, during the prime season of taking skins ; again, 
in 1873, I saw that, if anything, the number of " holluschickie " required was easier to obtain than in 1872, prior ; 
still again, throughout the killing-season of 1874, the constant remark of all concerned, at St. Paul, was that the 
prime seals were never so abundant before ; and, finally, in 1876, 1 heard, from these same parties interested, that 
it had been the most auspicious season, throughout, ever known to St. Paul island. 

Thus, it may naturally be inferred, that this steady and rather increased supply of "holluschickie" from year 
to year, means nothing, unless it points to a relative annual augmentation of the seal-life on the Pribylov islands; 
and it really acts in this wise as a life-barometer, that is sensibly affected by the heavier or lighter pressure of the 
rookeries operating upon it. 

Hence, the foregoing table, brought down as it is, to date, shows that the chosen seals are in abundant supply ; 
that the work was remarkably expeditious ; that the natives scarcely wasted a skin by cutting on the killing-grounds ; 
and, all in all, it represents a highly creditable state of affairs, suggestive of the steady condition of prosperity and 
security, which I unhesitatingly prophesied in 1873, after giving the matter much study and reflection. 

A presentation op the revenue derived prom the Pribylov islands. — The following transcript 
from the books of the Treasury Department, shows the exact receipts which the public coffers have derived as 
revenues from the seal-industry on the Pribylov islands, between the date of the act leasing them, July 1, 1870, up 
to August 20, 1881. I may say, without the least exaggeration, that these interests never yielded a tithe of this 
substantial aid and support to the government of Kussia, and they would not have returned a single cent, net, to 
the Treasury of the United States, had they not been so wisely and promptly protected by the good sense of our 
Congress in 1870. They would have passed in a few short seasons beyond all knowledge of men, as far as their 
appearance on the great breeding rookeries of St. Paul and St. George was concerned. 

*The report of Colonel Otis, special agent Treasury Department, in charge of the seal-islands, for 1880, contains an interesting table, 
■which covers a period of eleven years, viz, 1869-1880, inclusive ; and it shows, first, the number of seal-skins taken in each sealing soason 
proper on St. Paul island ; second, the number of days expended iu the -work per annum ; third, the number of sealers engaged ; fourth, 
the average number of skins taken por day ; and fifth, the average daily credit of skins taken for each man. The deduction which that 
gentleman makes from this suggestive and instructive codification, is that the seals seem to sensibly increase from year to year, rather 
thau to diminish iu numbers. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 171 

Tax and Kental paid into the Treasury of the United States by the Alaska Commercial Company— 
the Lessee op the Pribylov islands — 1870-'S1. 

Tax on seal-shins taken by the Alaska Commercial Company, per act of July 1, 1870. 

No. 422, 4th quarter, 1870 $86,167 00 

No. 376, 1st quarter, 1871 5,862 00 

No. 1215, 2d quarter, 1871 9,051 00 

$101,080 00 

No. 753, 4th quarter, 1871 159,545 63 

No. 1255, 2d quarter, 1872 102,807 00 

262, 352 63 

No. 596, 4th quarter, 1872 252,181 12 

No. 1466, 3d quarter, 1873 108,066 00 

No. 1467, 3d quarter, 1873 150,648 75 

No. 1001, 4th quarter, 1873 13,366 50 

272, 081 25 

No. 1533, 3d quarter, 1874 201,822 75 

No. 1534, 3d quarter, 1874 672 00 

262,494 75 

No. 445,3d quarter, 1875 10,106 25 

No. 1515, 3d quarter, 1875 147,598 50 

No. 433, 4th quarter, 1875 104,879 25 

262,584 00 

No. 1089, 3d quarter, 1876 172,063 50 

No. 433, 1st quarter, 1877 64,092 00 

236, 155 50 

No. 1527, 3d quarter, 1877 198,255 75 

No. 1659, 3d quarter, 1878 36,965 25 

No. 1600, 3d quarter, 1878 209,895 00 

No. 1581, 4th quarter, 1878 15,537 25 

262, 447 50 

No. 1088, 3d quarter, 1879 223,125 00 

No. 1686, 4th quarter, 1879 39,275 25 

262, 400 25 

3d quarter, 1880 202,500 00 

1631 262,395 00 

Total tax paid up to date, August 20, 1881 2,896,927 75 

Plus the annual rental of $55,000, from 1871-1880, inclusive, plus $5,480 75 rental for short lease 

of 1870 = rental paid 555,480 75 

Grand sum total of tax and rental 3,452,408 50 



GLOSSARY. 



41. DEFINITION OF TECHNICAL TEEMS AND RUSSIAN NOMENCLATURE, USED BY THE 
AUTHOR IN THE PEECEDING MONOGRAPH. 

Ahlxjckeyak (Aleutian). — A rough back-bone. 

Aleut (Russian). — Name given to all native inhabitants of the Aleutian islands. 

Arrie (Russian). — Lomvia arra. The guillemot, or murre; so named from the bird's harsh cry of "arra-arra". 

Baillie Brushkie (Russian). — Phaleris psittacula. Parroquet Auk; "white bosom". 

Banio (Russian). — A steamy bath-house. 

Barbie (Russian). — An elderly married woman. 

Barrabkie (Russian). — A hut. 

Barrabara (Russian). — A large hut, or "kozarrnie". 

Baroon (Russian). — Surf. 

Bidarrah (Russian). — A large skin-covered boat, propelled with oars, or used with sails before the wind; carries 

from three to ten tons. 
Bidarka (Russian). — A small skin-covered canoe. 

Bidarshik (Russian). — One who controls a baidar and its crew; a foreman. 
Bobrovta (Russian). — Otter island. 
Boga Slov (Russian). — God's word. 

Boorga (Russian). — Gale that blows fiercely and is laden with snow; from "booryak", a storm or tempest. 
Bolshoi (Russian). — Big. 
Buik (Russian). — A working ox, or bull. 

Bull (English). — The adult male fur-seal; also the adult male walrus and sea- lion. 
Canooskie (Russian). — Simorhynchus cristatellus. Crested auk. 
Chikie (Russian). — Larus glaucus. Burgomaster gull. 

Chornie Goose (Russian). — Branta canadensis var. leucopareia. White-collared goose. 
Choochkie (Russian). — Simorhynchus pusillus. Least, or knob-billed auk. 
Choochil (Russian).— To Stuff. 

Cookhnet (Russian). — The Aleutian cooking hut outside of the barrabkie. 
Cow (English). — The adult female of the fur-seal, the sea-lion, and the walrus. 
Dalnoi Mees (Russian). — Distant cape. 
Deetiah (Russian). — Children. 
Domashnie (Russian). — Houses. 
Etnahnuhto (Aleutian). — The mammae. 

Emannimik (Russian). — Namesday; or, literally, used as birthday. 
Epatka (Russian). — Fratercula corniculata. Horned puffin. 
Flensing (English). — Act of removing skins from seal carcasses. 
Flipper (English). — The fore-hand and hind-foot of fur-seal, sea-lion, and walrus. 
Gorbotch (Russian). — Humpback. 
Gorode (Russian). — A town; a village. 

Goverooskie (Russian). — Larus brevirostris, and L. tridactylm. Gulls. 
Hauling (English). — Action of seals in coming up from the sea over the land. 
Heat, " heating" (English).— That sudden decay of the seal's body after death. 
Holluschak, pi. HOLLUSCHiCKtE (Russian).— Bachelor ; bachelors. 

173 



174 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Humpback Whale (English). — Mcgaptera versdbilis. 

ELalog (Aleutian). — All the small cottoid fishes. 

Kamlaika (Eussian). — The water -proof shirt. 

Kammin (Eussian). — Stone. 

Kamminista (Eussian). — Eocky place. 

Kanooska (Eussian). — See Canooskie, antea. "Little captain.'- 

Kapoostah (Eussian). — All algre. Sea-weeds ; from " morskie kapoosta", a "sea-cabbage". 

Katjtick, pi. kautickie (Eussian). — Pur-seal, collectively. 

Keetavie (Eussian). — Whale place. 

Kench (English). — Bin in the salt-house for pickling fur-seal skins. 

Keshla (Eussian.) — Sour ; rotting. 

Kibitscha (Eussian). — The common four-wheeled carriage of Eussia. 

Killer-whale (English). — Orca gladiator, var. rectipinnis. 

Kolitskie (Eussian). — Tringaptilocnemis, and all waders on the islands. 

Kotick, pi. Kotickie (Eussian). — Young fur-seal. 

Kvass, or Qtjass (Eussian). — Native home-brewed beer; vile product of flour, dried apples, sugar, and water, 

fermented in a cask for a certain period; also called "mahkoolah", after a Eussian brewer. 
Laabas (Eussian). — Drying or hanging frame for meat and fish. 
Laaeka (Eussian). — Storehouse, or store. 

Laasbustchie (Eussian). — Breeding-grounds (literally, " a place where seals dry off"). 
Limmekshin (Aleutian). — Anorthura troglodytes; wren. (A "chew of tobacco"). 
Loughtak (Eussian). — Air dried skins of all seals. 

Lupus (Eussian). — Fulmarus glacialis, var. Bodgersi. Fulmar. A large species of petrel. 
Maasltjcken (Aleutian). — Missing, or minus. 

Matka (Eussian). — Mother; appled to female fur-seals and sea-lions. 
Medvaedski (Eussian). — Bears. 
Melchiska (Eussian) — Boy; urchin. 
Mees (Eussian). — Cape; headland; point. 
Mista (Eussian). — Place; spot. 

Moroshka (Eussian). — The fruit of Bubus ehamcmnorus. "Little frost berry." 
Moesezovia (Eussian). — Walrus island; also, " Morserovia ". 
Morskie kot (Eussian). — Fur-seals ("sea-cat"). 

Nahvostoke (Eussian). — "To the eastward"; applied to the Black Bluffs on St. Paul. 
Nahsavvernia (Eussian). — "To or on the north shore." 
Nah Speel (Eussian). — "On the point"; a corruption of "nah speetsah". 
Nearhpah (Eussian). — Phoca vitulina. The hair-seal. 

Novastoshnah (Eussian). — "Place of recent growth"; applied to Northeast point. 
Ochen (Eussian). — Very. 

Ootkie (Eussian). — Duck ; applied to all ducks. 
Oreel (Eussian). — Oraoulus bicristatas. Shag, cormorant. 
Ostrov (Eussian).— Island. 
Pahknoot (Eussian). — A smell. 

Pahtoshkte (Eussian). — Leucosticte tephrocotis var. griseinucha. Gray-eared finch. 
Peesaich, pi. peestchee (Eussian). — Vulpes lagopus. Blue and white foxes. 
Pod (English). — A smaller or larger gathering of seals on land. 
Polavina Sopka (Eussian). — Halfway mountain. 
Poltoos (Eussian). — Hippoglossus vulgaris. Halibut. 
Pomeerat (Eussian). — To die; applied only to the decease of animals. 
Precashchik (Eussian). — An agent; a clerk; a sheriff. 
Predovchik (Eussian).— The "senior officer". 
Promyshlenik (Eussian). — A hunter. 
Povarnik (Eussian). — A cook-room. 

Pup (English). — The young of the fur-seal and sea-lion, up to the age of one year. 
Eaak (Eussian). — The common crab. (Chionoeocetes.) 
Eahkooshka (Eussian). — The common mussel. (Mytilus.) 
Eap-o-loof (Eussian). — Turdus migratorius. Bed-breasted Eobin. 
Eazboinek (Eussian). — Eobber. 
Eepkie (Eussian). — EcMnoklw. Sea-urchins. 
Bookery, pi. rookeries (English).— Breeding-grounds and breeding-seals thereon. 



THE FUR-SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 



175 



Saafka (Russian). — Earelda glacialis. "Old squaw," long-tailed duck. 

Scoociinie (Russian). — Tiresome; lonesome. 

Seecatch, pi. seecatchie (Russian). — Male fur-seal and sea-lion, full grown. 

Seevitch, pi. seevitchie (Russian). — Sea-lion, collectively. 

Seroynah (Russian). — "Just like it." 

Sheksah (Russian). — Empetrum nigrum. Vine and fruit thereof. The "crowberry" of English botanists. 

Snaguiskie (Russian). — Plcctroplumes nivalis. The snow bird. 

Starooka (Russian). — An old woman. 

Stakeek (Russian). — An old man. 

Stoorman (Russian). — Ship's mate. 

Talneek (Russian). — Salix. All the creeping willows are thus named. 

Tarbossa (Russian). — Native boots made of the nippers, throats, and intestines of the Pinnvpedia. 

Tawporkie (Russian). — Fratercula cirrhata. Tufted puffin; from its hatchet-like bill. 

Tayopli (Russian). — Warm. 

Tolstoi (Russian). — Thick. 

Tonkie Mees (Russian). — Little or peaked cape. 

Treesca (Russian). — Gad us morrhua. Codfish. 

Un KoNcniELSAH (Russian). — "He has finished." The refined reference to human death ; never applied to animals. 

Varrone (Russian). — Gorvus corax. Raven. 

Vesolia Mista (Russian). — Jolly place. 

Whale rind (English). — The skin of the whale. 

Wig (English). — That light buff-colored patch on the shoulders of the seecatchie. 

Zapooska (Russian). — A saving of, or sparing of. • 

Zoobaden (Russian). — "Tooth cut; tooth bitten." 

42. WEIGHTS, MEASURES, AND VALUES. 

I introduce the following brief tables of Russian weights, measures, and values, in order that the occasional 
mention made by Veniamiuov, in this respect, may be clearly understood, and also to assist any inquiring individual 
who may be disposed to read up Russian authorities on the subject of their travel, geographical research, and fur- 
trade in Alaska. 



WEIGHTS. 

1 zolotnik = 6 English grains av. 
3zolotnik= 1 "Lot". 
32 "lots" = 1 English pound av. 
1 pood = 3by g - English pounds a v. 

MEASURES. 

1 arsheen = 28 English inches. 
1 verskoak = 1 J English inches. 
I sajeen = 7 English feet. 
3 versts = 2 English miles. 



1 copper kopeck = 1 silver kopeck. 

2 copper kopecks = 1 griisk. 

3 copper kopecks = 1 alteen. 

5 copper kopecks = 1 peetack. 

5 silver kopecks = 1 peetak. 
M silver kopecks = 1 greevnah. 
15 silver kopecks = 1 peteealtin. 
20 silver kopecks = 1 dvoogreevenik. 
25 silver kopecks = 1 chetvertak. 
50 salver kopecks = 1 polteenah. 
100 silver kopecks = 1 ruble.* 



The gold coinage of Russia is seldom seen, even at home, and never has been used in Alaska; the form of its 
toinage is known to Russians as an "Impdriale ", and is equal to about $5 of our currency. 

The word "ruble", according to Mr. S. N. Buynitskie, comes from the Russian "roobeet", or, to hew with a 
hatchet, because the practice of notching the bullion bars, as specified below, was one that called for the use of a 
little ax for that purpose. In 1G34 rubles were first introduced to Russia, at Moscow, in the form of bullion bars, 
with deep notches in them, u riibU, v which enabled the possessor to detach as much of the bar as his payment 
might require; hence the origin of the word ruble; the first silver money of Russia was coined at Novogorod in 
1420; it was struck in small pieces, which were then, as now, called "/.o^t-c/.s"; the present value of the kopeck is 
not quite f of 1 cent (United States currency). Nearly all the ordinary business calculations of Russia are made 
upon the basis of kopecks. At present, specie has substantially disappeared in that country, and depreciated paper is 

"The silver ruble is nearly equal to 75 cents in our coin. The paper ruble fluctuates in Russia from 40 to 50 cents, specie value; 
in Alaska, it was rated at 20 cents, silver. Much of the "paper" currency in Alaska during Russian rule was stamped ou little squares of 
walrus hide. 



176 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

the representative ; the silver kopeck no longer exists as current coin. Tlie copper kopeck bears on its obverse side 
tbe figure of St. George spearing a dragon: "from this spear," says Georgi, "called lapwa in Eussian, the term 
IcopecTc has been derived." 

A still smaller coin, called the u polooslika v , worth J kopeck, has been used in Eussia; it takes its name from a 
hare skin, "ooshka", or "little ears", which, before the use of money by the Sclavs, was one of the lowest articles of 
exchange; pol signifying half, and polooshka, half a hare's slcin. From another small coin, the "deinga" (equal to £ 
kopeck in value), is derived the Eussian word for money, deingah or deingie.* 

In conclusion, it may be interesting to add to this mention of the coin used on the seal-islands and in the 
fur-trade transactions of Alaska, that the first piece of stamped money known to the numismatic records is a small 
coin made by the Phocians about 700 B. C, on the obverse side of which was the figure of a seal, so stamped 
because when these people were emigrating their boats were "followed by shoals of seals". 

* As far as I can ascertain, the above expression of Eussian nomenclature, regarding the subjects named, is the first correct rendition 
made in the English language of the same. Clarke [Travels: 1800] gives, on a fly-leaf cf introduction to his interesting and graphic 
picture of Eussian life and country, these items of weight, measure, and money, nearly all correct as to figures, but hardly one of the 
Muscovitic equivalents is properly pronounced and spelled in accordance. He frankly confesses his ignorance, however, of the Eussian 
language, and hence bars out all adverse criticism thereby. I should also add that I have, as far as possible, refrained from using any of 
the Aleutian nomenclature on the seal-islands, for the simple reason that while those natives do not, in talking among themselves, employ 
the above Eussian titles, yet when they address us they do, and hence the Slavonian designations are those which all races up there agree 
upon in their definition and application. 



LBFeM 



-*t 



